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7 Replies Last post: Jun 26, 2009 7:48 AM by mcowger
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ESX Drive Formatting

Jun 26, 2009 6:28 AM

Click to view Dinty's profile Enthusiast Dinty 49 posts since
Aug 21, 2007

I have some old drives (XP O/S) that I would now like to use for ESX. What is the best way to do a comprehensive format in ESX such that the old data has been erased?

Thanks.

Reply Re: ESX Drive Formatting Jun 26, 2009 6:34 AM
Click to view ZaWizZ's profile Expert ZaWizZ 268 posts since
Jul 27, 2007
AFAIK creating an ESX Datastore erases the existing partitions.


-Arnim van Lieshout

Blogging: http://www.van-lieshout.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/avlieshout

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Reply Re: ESX Drive Formatting Jun 26, 2009 6:39 AM
Click to view @m!t's profile Enthusiast @m!t 53 posts since
Apr 8, 2008 VMware

Ya, if you want to create vmfs volume or ESX ,you need to format.

-@m!t

Reply Re: ESX Drive Formatting Jun 26, 2009 6:53 AM
in response to: ZaWizZ
Click to view Dinty's profile Enthusiast Dinty 49 posts since
Aug 21, 2007
Sure, this erases the partitions but I was looking for something more complete. Something more akin to what Windows server offers during installation (NTFS full format).
Reply Re: ESX Drive Formatting Jun 26, 2009 7:17 AM
in response to: Dinty
Click to view mcowger's profile Virtuoso mcowger 2,014 posts since
Aug 22, 2007
No such thing is required or possible during install.






--Matt
VCP, vExpert, Unix Geek
Reply Re: ESX Drive Formatting Jun 26, 2009 7:19 AM
in response to: mcowger
Click to view Chuck8773's profile Expert Chuck8773 229 posts since
May 4, 2007

If you really want to nuke the disk prior to install, check out http://www.dban.org/.

We use this to wipe any disks before they leave our datacenter.


Charles Killmer, VCP

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Reply Re: ESX Drive Formatting Jun 26, 2009 7:40 AM
in response to: mcowger
Click to view Dinty's profile Enthusiast Dinty 49 posts since
Aug 21, 2007
What about after install from the VIC console?
Reply Re: ESX Drive Formatting Jun 26, 2009 7:48 AM
in response to: Dinty
Click to view mcowger's profile Virtuoso mcowger 2,014 posts since
Aug 22, 2007
There is no concept of a 'full' format for VMFS.

If you REALLY wanted to, from the system console (not the GUI), you could do something like:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M

to wipe the whole disk sdX before you reformat it, but its 100% unnecessary and a waste of time. Will not improve performance or anything else.

--M
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