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Thread: Used a command in terminal..how to know it if is working?

  1. #1
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    Used a command in terminal..how to know it if is working?

    So I used the following command to wipe my HDD completely while running UBUNTU LIVE USB.

    Command:

    Code:
    sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda
    Nothing has seemed to happened but when I went to close the terminal it said something on the lines of "closing my terminate operation" giving the indication something was happening...?

    Here is a screen shot of it in action:


  2. #2
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    Re: Used a command in terminal..how to know it if is working?

    Hi

    dd does not give any user feedback while working unless it fails (IIRC).

    When you get the command prompt again then dd has finished.

    If i am wrong about this then someone will correct me as its been ages since i used dd.

    Kind regards
    Last edited by matt_symes; October 2nd, 2011 at 05:10 PM.
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    If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed. - Mark Twain

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  3. #3
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    Re: Used a command in terminal..how to know it if is working?

    If you close the terminal while dd is running, you terminate dd, since it is a child process of the terminal.

  4. #4
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    Re: Used a command in terminal..how to know it if is working?

    thanks guys. any idea how long dd will take on a 250gb HDD?

    cheers

  5. #5
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    Re: Used a command in terminal..how to know it if is working?

    Hi

    It will take a while (not sure exactly how long). It's a good excuse to put the kettle on

    Kind regards
    If you believe everything you read, you better not read. ~ Japanese Proverb

    If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed. - Mark Twain

    Thinking about becoming an Ubuntu Member?

  6. #6
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    Re: Used a command in terminal..how to know it if is working?

    Quote Originally Posted by sammya View Post
    thanks guys. any idea how long dd will take on a 250gb HDD?

    cheers
    I use dd to create iso-format copies of setup CDs, and for an average half-gigabyte CD it usually takes 30 minutes to an hour. For a 250-GB drive I would expect it to take about 500 times that long -- and a whole week has only 168 hours in it, so a rough estimate would be about a month...

    EDIT -- My son has used DBAN to wipe a much smaller drive, as I recall it was about 30 GB, and it ran for most of a day. That would probably be much faster than using dd. DBAN is a self-booting package and I think it's built on a Linux base. A Google search will turn up many sources for downloading it.
    Last edited by JKyleOKC; October 2nd, 2011 at 05:44 PM. Reason: To suggest DBAN as an alternative
    --
    Jim Kyle in Oklahoma, USA
    Linux Counter #259718
    Howto mark thread: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UnansweredPo.../SolvedThreads

  7. #7
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    Re: Used a command in terminal..how to know it if is working?

    lol jesus christ...
    tbh all i am really after is a clean hdd that is properly formatted but more thorough then what ubuntu's disk manager provides..

    any tips?

  8. #8
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    Re: Used a command in terminal..how to know it if is working?

    Quote Originally Posted by matt_symes View Post
    Hi

    dd does not give any user feedback while working unless it fails (IIRC).

    When you get the command prompt again then dd has finished.

    If i am wrong about this then someone will correct me as its been ages since i used dd.

    Kind regards
    There is a way to ask dd to print current I/O stats to stderr by sending a USR1 signal to it.
    Code:
    kill -USR1 pid-of-dd

  9. #9
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    Re: Used a command in terminal..how to know it if is working?

    Quote Originally Posted by foureyesboy View Post
    There is a way to ask dd to print current I/O stats to stderr by sending a USR1 signal to it.
    Code:
    kill -USR1 pid-of-dd
    just put the command in. where do i go to see the results?
    Last edited by sammya; October 2nd, 2011 at 06:08 PM.

  10. #10
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    Re: Used a command in terminal..how to know it if is working?

    Hi

    Quote Originally Posted by foureyesboy View Post
    There is a way to ask dd to print current I/O stats to stderr by sending a USR1 signal to it.
    Code:
    kill -USR1 pid-of-dd
    Nice!!! Thanks for this tip.

    Code:
    kill -USR1 $(pgrep -x dd)


    I will try it out next time i use dd.

    Kind regards
    Last edited by matt_symes; October 2nd, 2011 at 06:12 PM.
    If you believe everything you read, you better not read. ~ Japanese Proverb

    If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed. - Mark Twain

    Thinking about becoming an Ubuntu Member?

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