On Sep 21, 2022, at 4:56 PM, David Donaldson KC30SG / WRCB627 <dave@...> wrote:

?

I suggest you investigate GParted Live.

It's a "Live" bootable linux with GParted (Gnu Partition Editor) that you install onto a USB thumb drive.

You download and create an image on a USB drive, then boot that while your Western Digital drive is THE ONLY DISK connected to the disk controller on your PC. What I mean by this is...make sure your PC has its hard disk temporarily removed or at least disconnected.?

Why? So you don't make a mistake and accidentally delete the partition(s) on your PC.

Here's a link:

I've personally used this tool dozens of times.

Windows is, as you probably know, difficult to deal with as a tool to format disks as it tries to protect its own partitions. So I don't recommend using any Windows based partitioning applications to do this work.

You will, of course, use Windows to download this tool and to burn it onto a USB.

GParted is an excellent tool, and "should" be able to completely remove any existing partitions on the Western Digital drive. Once you clear all the partitions, you can use your raspbian OS or other Linux to partition and format the drive, or you can simply use Gparted to create a Linux partition.

You can call me if you need clarification or help with the process.

dave...

David B. Donaldson
dave@...
443-618-2454 cell

WRCB627 / KC3OSG
-------------------------------------------------------

The only good in this world is what we bring.

The only bad, is what we allow. - dbd

On Tue, Sep 20, 2022 at 10:24 PM raclausi <raclausi@...> wrote:

Hi, I have acquired a “purple” (Surveillance hard drive) western digital 2 T hard drive .

I want to format it using my raspi but I do not have the permission to get beyond the cache. I would like to drop to sudo su command line but I am unsure what utilities I can call to wipe and format.

This drive was from a broken Lorex surveillance system owned by my friend who owns a hardware store. I want to repurpose it to the rasp. I am using my universal adapter kit to fire it up and read the directories but the 2020 video library is basically the whole disk. Gotta get rid of it.

Any insight is appreciated.

Rich, ve3DCC