How to safely "reset" the hard drive

Axel Lieber

2/14/23, 4:40 AM

In the course of trying different operating systems on my old Macbook Air (including Ubuntu currently), I've somehow managed to accrue a total of 13 partitions on my SSD. How can I clean up this mess, basically bring the SSD back to a virgin state? To be clear - I want to completely wipe the thing, get rid of everything that's on it, including all those partitions. No problem losing any data that are on it. I do want to keep using this machine though, and install an OS when I'm done with this clean-up. So I don't want to wreck the thing.

0 + 0

ssd

disk-formatting

pasman pasmański

2/14/23, 5:00 AM

If 's not needed. Ubuntu installation image can clean the disk before install.

guiverc

2/14/23, 5:54 AM

Create a new partition table; as partitions are created within the partition table; if you create a new one your disk/ssd will be blank. Use whatever disk management tool you prefer (you gave no release details; Ubuntu has numerous options from `gparted`, `gnome-disk-utility`, KDE Partition Manager & more...)

Score:4

Ubuntu

Nmath

2/14/23, 4:57 AM

You have tagged "disk-formatting" and this is exactly what you need to do.

Ubuntu comes with "Disks" which is an easy-to-use GUI application to format and manage drives and partitions.

Simply open the "Disks" application, choose the disk you want to format on the left, and then choose "Format" in the drop down "hamburger" menu.

You will get an option to format the disk as GPT or MBR. GPT is generally the better choice as it will allow you to install modern UEFI operating systems. GPT does not have an overly restrictive partition limit. MBR has a limit of 4 partitions.

After the disk is formatted, you can use the + symbol to create partitions and file systems.

Make sure you pick the right drive, because this will effectively delete everything on it, just as you've asked.

0 + 0

24601

2/14/23, 5:21 AM

... and don't forget you need to unmount it first from within disks

Will

2/14/23, 5:35 AM

If your machine only has the one ssd (including with the os on it) you’ll need to do all this from a live usb session. You can then either install Ubuntu and reformat the drive / delete all current partitions during the process, or choose ‘try Ubuntu’ and use Disks or GParted to manipulate (delete) partitions and reformat before installing.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: How to safely "reset" the hard drive

TH: วิธี "รีเซ็ต" ฮาร์ดไดรฟ์อย่างปลอดภัย

RO: Cum să „resetezi” în siguranță hard disk-ul

RU: Как безопасно «сбросить» жесткий диск

VI: Cách "reset" ổ cứng an toàn

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