HOW DO WE CHANGE THE DISK FORMATTING PATTERN

ITEM: RTA000023959



QUESTION:                                                                       
Could you tell me what the pattern is for the 400 MB drive                      
when doing 2 format of the drive?                                               
Would we have to run the formatter three times, changing the                    
pattern each time?  Finally, does the format destroy (overwrite)                
ALL data  on the disk?  If so, how do you verify that everything                
has been removed from the disk?  Again, we are very concerned                   
about security.                                                                 
                                                                                
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A:                                                                              
1)  >>> What is the hex formatting pattern for the 400 MB drive?<<<             
    The diagnostics formatting pattern for the 400 MB disk is x'00'.            
                                                                                
2)  >>> How can the formatting pattern be changed? <<<                         
    In order to change the pattern used to format the disk drives, you          
    will need to create a user-written C-language routine.  This routine        
    would open the special device /dev/rhdisknn (where 'nn' is the              
    appropriate device number) in character mode and write a desired            
    pattern from beginning to end of this logical device (which is              
    associated with a physical volume).                                         
                                                                                
    There are standard C library routines which will allow checking of          
    the EOF status from a device. The C routine could loop on the write         
    operation until End-of File status is received from the write               
    operation.                                                                  
                                                                                
3)  >>> Would we have to run the formatter three times, changing the            
    pattern each time? <<<                                                      
    It is not necessary to reformat three different times.  If a second        
    pattern is required, the routine could CLOSE the device, RE-OPEN the        
    device, FSEEK to reposition to the start of the device, then write          
    the next pattern as needed.                                                 
                                                                                
4)  >>> Does the format destroy (overwrite) ALL data on the disk? <<<           
    A format will write over all user-accessible data on the disk. This         
    will include the boot record, software bad block relocation sectors         
    and directory, LVM descriptor areas, etc.  Only hardware-accessible         
    areas, such as the hardware bad block directory, cannot be written          
    over by the user.  These areas will not contain any information on          
    the hardware and nothing regarding the disk contents.                       
                                                                                
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This item was created from library item Q586936      BJJDD                      
                                                                                
Additional search words:                                                        
BJJDD CHANGE DASD DISC DISKETTE FACILITY FORMAT FORMATTING HARDWARE             
IX JUN92 MAINTAIN MAINTENANCE PATTERN RISCSYSTEM RISCSYSU SYS SYSTEM            
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WWQA: ITEM: RTA000023959 ITEM: RTA000023959
Dated: 07/1996 Category: RISCMGMT
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