On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 23:47:31 -0700, Gregory Nowak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> My question is how do I zero out empty space in a gnu/linux guest? I'm > assuming I'd use dd on the raw partitions (I.E. /dev/hda1, /dev/hda2 > and so on), providing it an offset I would somehow determine. The > problem I see with this is what if the file system is fragmented, > (ext3 in my case and swap), and you don't have an empty block of zeros > all at the end, especially if you've added data, removed it, and added > another set of data? Is there an easier way to do this for ext3 and > swap with e2fsprogs, or some other utility? If not, and if dd is the > only way, then could > someone please explain how to determine the offset I would need to > pass to dd, and how to make sure that data on the drive is in one > contiguous block? Thanks in advance. dd if=/dev/zero of=/path-to-mount-point/dummy-file.bin then rm /path-to-mount-point/dummy-file.bin Just create a big big file on the filesystem until it fills the entire disk and then remove it. -- Octavio. _______________________________________________ vbox-users mailing list [email protected] http://vbox.innotek.de/mailman/listinfo/vbox-users
