[Bug 484252] Re: Format action wipes all partitions

[Evan Dandrea]

On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 12:19 PM, Dmitrijs Ledkovs
<484252 at bugs.launchpad.net> wrote:
> Doesn't the proposed branch still passes the whole device for wiping the
> MBR? Let me check again, in case it doesn't. It was the intent to still
> wipe the MBR.

Well, it's still writing the first 446 bytes, which would definitely
kill the partition table.

> On 21/05/12 11:49, Evan Dandrea wrote:
>> On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 7:26 PM, Dmitrijs Ledkovs
>> Please no. That utility is designed for advanced users who understand
>> partitioning and complex disk arrangements. This tool is designed to
>> be used by all our users, not just the more technical ones.
>>
>
> But, although having small windows partitions with drivers and stuff is
> still common, the sizes of the usb sticks have greatly increased.

Perhaps I was unclear in picking that as an example. It's not that
users want to maximize the amount of space they have. The point I was
trying to make there is that USB disks with multiple partitions that
people care about are not common. We should optimize for the common
case, which is single USB disk, single (or no) VFAT partition.

I have a fear of odd disk configurations that prevent us from
successfully installing to and booting from a USB disk of which we
just replaced the contents of a single partition. The intent of that
button was "start from a known good state", and the only known good
state is a clean disk.

However, the more I draw a line in the sand around this, the more I'm
going to become responsible for investing time in usb-creator. ;) So
if you feel that it's sufficient to clear just the code area of the
MBR and wipe the existed selected partitions and its VBR, then I'll
happily merge your branch (once you've made the change to just hit the
code area).

Thank you for working on this, Dmitrijs. I most certainly feel that
something should be done here, and I'm glad you're taking the
initiative to resolve this issue.

-- 
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/484252

Title:
  Format action wipes all partitions

Status in “usb-creator” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  "Erase Disk" action formats *all* partitions, instead of the selected
  partition only.

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