Aaron Veteran Posted May 14, 2008 Veteran Share Posted May 14, 2008 Ok, I'm a having this issue with an external hard drive with my iBook (see here). The problem has come back again, I don't know if it is the hardware or OS X or what. At any rate, I want to simply wipe it out using my linux desktop, and while I can read it... it cannot delete or format, etc, sinc eI don't 'own' it. Any thoughts on how I can take over the ownership and wipe it out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gary7 Subscriber² Posted May 14, 2008 Subscriber² Share Posted May 14, 2008 If you had a Windows PC you could do it. Did it come with an installation disk? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gigapixels Veteran Posted May 14, 2008 Veteran Share Posted May 14, 2008 If you had a Windows PC you could do it. Did it come with an installation disk? That's not the problem. The problem is that the drive itself is disallowing anything to be done to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Veteran Posted May 14, 2008 Author Veteran Share Posted May 14, 2008 If you had a Windows PC you could do it. Did it come with an installation disk? At the moment I don't have windows installed anywhere. That's not the problem. The problem is that the drive itself is disallowing anything to be done to it. Exactly, I can read the disk in linux (Ubuntu 8.04) but cannot delete anything. It is totally unreadable/unmountable on my iBook. So I figured at least with my Ubuntu system I can get to it, so how to sledgehammer the damn thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Gary7 Subscriber² Posted May 14, 2008 Subscriber² Share Posted May 14, 2008 That's not the problem. The problem is that the drive itself is disallowing anything to be done to it. I know that but if he had the CD that normally comes with a drive he could format it, or at least wipe it and re install it. Most HD companies such as WD / Seagate have downloadable tools that can be used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted May 14, 2008 Veteran Share Posted May 14, 2008 Well, if you boot into Linux, and do a sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/xda bs=512 count=1 as root (preface with 'sudo', if that is required by your install), it should absolutely work (remember to change the 'xda' I used into whatever device your drive shows up as, hda, sdb, what-not). If you get an error, post it here. EDIT: Saw you are using Ubuntu, so changed the command, and struck the extraneous comments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrA Posted May 14, 2008 Share Posted May 14, 2008 Exactly, I can read the disk in linux (Ubuntu 8.04) but cannot delete anything. It is totally unreadable/unmountable on my iBook. So I figured at least with my Ubuntu system I can get to it, so how to sledgehammer the damn thing? So you can't format the drive under root? That's not right. Remember, at the hardware level, there are no permissions. You should be able to read or write anything on disk as root. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The2 Posted May 16, 2008 Share Posted May 16, 2008 Well, if you boot into Linux, and do a sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/xda bs=512 count=1 Be careful with this. If this won't work it's definitely hardware! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted May 16, 2008 Veteran Share Posted May 16, 2008 Be careful with this.Generally good advice when you "dd" right to your drive. Which is why I put "xda" instead of "sda", in case anyone (not necessarily Aaron, but any other member stumbling across this thread) pastes it into their terminal, it will fail and won't be destructive. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Veteran Posted May 16, 2008 Author Veteran Share Posted May 16, 2008 Sorry to not check back in. I followed the advice from the Mac thread and used the diskutil commands. I got it back, reformatted it this time in FAT, hopefully that will take care of it. Still not sure if the OSX is the issue corrupting it or it is hardware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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