Removing RAID metadata

Sometimes a hardware RAID controller or fakeraid (BIOS) can leave metadata that makes it impossible to install Windows or Linux, or it installs correctly, but causes a kernel panic or a 0xb7 blue screen error on the first boot. The only method I could find to delete the metadata *quickly* is to zero out the last 512KB of data on the disk using the following command:

dd if=/dev/zero of=$YOUR_DEV bs=512 seek=$(( $(blockdev --getsz $YOUR_DEV) - 1024 )) count=1024

Replace $YOUR_DEV with the physical device, such as /dev/sda

You could just zero the whole disk, but that could take hours. This command executes in less than a second.

  • 2 Users Found This Useful
Was this answer helpful?

Related Articles

What is a Dedicated Server?

A dedicated server refers to the rental and exclusive use of a computer that includes a Web...

How To Understand the Filesystem Layout in Linux

If you are new to Linux and Unix-like operating systems, the basic ways to interact with and...

TIP: How to view your server processors and cores via command line

>Log in as root Type|: cat /proc/cpuinfo output:   or     cat /proc/cpuinfo   Either...

How to Install CSF Firewall and disable APF+BFD

In this guide we will walk you through installing and  configuring CSF – Config Server Firewall,...

Changing the SSH Port for Your Linux Server

You can change the default SSH port for your Linux server as an added security measure. Make...