[ale] How do I fill a new hard drive with random data to burn it in?

[Erik Mathis]

Its not dd thats slow its urandom, use /dev/zero. I posted a few weeks 
ago on how to do this. If you really want to burn in a disk use this 
bootdisk which has loads of extra goodies

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

-Erik-


On 12/30/2012 05:46 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote:
> got it running.
>
> estimated time till done is 2 days.  dd isn't very fast.
>
> Ron
>
>
> "Ron Frazier (ALE)" <atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the note.  I found the following online which shows how to
>> run dd with time to get the time used when done and also shows how to
>> check on the progress.
>>
>> time dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sdb
>>
>> Checking on progress
>>
>> The dd command doesn’t give us any useful feedback whilst it’s running,
>> but we can force it to cough up some useful data by prodding it with a
>> USR1 signal. Assuming you only have one instance of dd running we can
>> use:
>>
>> kill -USR1 `pidof dd`
>>
>> (Note, they are backticks around the pidof dd command.)
>>
>> From:
>>
>> https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/duncanelliot/entry/using_dd_and_urandom_to_write_random_data_to_a_disk?lang=en
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Ron
>>
>>
>> gcs8 <gcsviii at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Oh, I forgot to read, I think you can do it with dd.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 4:38 PM, gcs8 <gcsviii at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> dban
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 4:36 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) <
>>>> atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I want to fill a new hard drive with random numbers as part of a
>>> burn in
>>>>> process that I do.  I know I can boot a copy of Ultimate Boot CD
>> and
>>> do
>>>>> this, but I want to do it from a running Ubuntu installation.  Once
>>> I've
>>>>> filled it with random numbers, I will do a few non destructive read
>>> write
>>>>> tests with badblocks.  Initially, there is no data on the drive, so
>>> I don't
>>>>> care about file systems, or partitions.  I want to write to every
>>> bit of
>>>>> user accessible space.  What commands would I use?
>>>>>
>>>>> Sincerely,
>>>>>
>>>>> Ron
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>>
>>>>> Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and
>>> K-9
>>>>> Mail.
>>>>> Please excuse my potential brevity.
>>>>>
>>>>> (To whom it may concern.  My email address has changed.  Replying
>> to
>>>>> former
>>>>> messages prior to 03/31/12 with my personal address will go to the
>>> wrong
>>>>> address.  Please send all personal correspondence to the new
>>> address.)
>>>>> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might
>> want
>>> to
>>>>> call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate
>>> energy
>>>>> mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very
>>>>> quickly.)
>>>>>
>>>>> Ron Frazier
>>>>> 770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
>>>>> linuxdude AT techstarship.com
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Charles Selfridge
>>>>
>>>> PBYC  IT director
>>>>
>>>> (404) 910-3409
>>>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9
>> Mail.
>> Please excuse my potential brevity.
>>
>> (To whom it may concern.  My email address has changed.  Replying to
>> former
>> messages prior to 03/31/12 with my personal address will go to the
>> wrong
>> address.  Please send all personal correspondence to the new address.)
>>
>> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
>> call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate
>> energy
>> mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very
>> quickly.)
>>
>> Ron Frazier
>> 770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
>> linuxdude AT techstarship.com
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Ale mailing list
>> Ale at ale.org
>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>
> --
>
> Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9 Mail.
> Please excuse my potential brevity.
>
> (To whom it may concern.  My email address has changed.  Replying to former
> messages prior to 03/31/12 with my personal address will go to the wrong
> address.  Please send all personal correspondence to the new address.)
>
> (PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
> call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
> mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very quickly.)
>
> Ron Frazier
> 770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
> linuxdude AT techstarship.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo