Re: Overwrite existing partition with zeros without hurting partition table? (Debian Lenny)

[Thierry Chatelet <tchatelet@free.fr>]

On Saturday 06 March 2010 00:09:58 Mark wrote:
> I hope there is a simple answer to this question (fingers crossed): how do
>  I overwrite an existing partition (hda2 for example) with all zeros
> (essentially blanking the partition clean in preparation for installing
> Lenny), without destroying the partition table?  I've used the shred
>  command to wipe partitions before, but it messes up the partition table
>  along with it.  The purpose is that I have a 200gb hard drive with
>  music/pics/etc. on a separate partition from the OS that I will mount via
>  fstab upon boot.  I've searched around and the dd command can probably do
>  it but haven't gotten the command line to do it.  Any thoughts?
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Mark
> 
"If" I understand your question correctly;  you want to keep your 200 Gb and 
do a new install.First question: are those 200 gb on a separated partition? If 
no, then you should save the music on a external drive, or create a partition 
to put it on. Then during the new install choose manual partitioning and go 
on.
Thierry