Numberformat at 19:11, 3 April 2022

2022-04-03T19:11:08Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:11, 3 April 2022
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	First step is to insert and mount the disk on a Linux based machine. Raspberry Pi works well for this.		First step is to insert and mount the disk on a Linux based machine. Raspberry Pi works well for this.

			Insert into the Linux machine and find the device id using

			sudo lsblk

			mount the device to a directory name for example mnt

	Then run the following python script.		Then run the following python script.

	python3 zero.py ~~[location to zero fill]~~		python3 zero.py mnt

	<pre>		<pre>

Numberformat: Created page with "This page has the python script that can be used to zero fill the empty space on a disk. Doing this helps save space when compressing the image file. First step is to insert..."

2022-04-03T14:21:25Z

Created page with "This page has the python script that can be used to zero fill the empty space on a disk. Doing this helps save space when compressing the image file. First step is to insert..."

New page

This page has the python script that can be used to zero fill the empty space on a disk. Doing this helps save space when compressing the image file.

First step is to insert and mount the disk on a Linux based machine. Raspberry Pi works well for this.

Then run the following python script.

python3 zero.py [location to zero fill]

<pre>
import os
import shutil
import time

import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Zero fills the file system for the purpose of disk imaging and compression')
parser.add_argument('basepath', help='basepath is required.')
args = parser.parse_args()

# get space available on drive
total, used, free = shutil.disk_usage(args.basepath)

# make a byte array
buff = bytearray(1048576*100)

tempdir = os.path.join(args.basepath, f"files_tmp")
if not os.path.exists(tempdir): os.makedirs(tempdir)
print(f"tempdir : {tempdir} created to hold zero fill files.")
for i in range(int(free/len(buff))):
ff = open(os.path.join(tempdir, f"file_{i}.tmp"), "wb")
start = time.time()
byteswritten = ff.write(buff)
end = time.time()
speed = byteswritten/1048576 / (end-start)
total, used, free = shutil.disk_usage(tempdir)
print(f'free: {int(free/(1024*1024))} Mb, speed = {speed:.2f} Mb/sec')
ff.close()
# create the last temp file
ff = open(os.path.join(tempdir, f"file_final.tmp"), "wb")
byteswritten = ff.write(bytearray(free))
ff.close()
# finally delete the temp
print("All remaining space on drive filled.")
ans = input(f"Are you sure you want to delete: {tempdir} (Y/N)? ")
if "Y" == ans.upper():
if os.path.exists(tempdir): shutil.rmtree(tempdir)

</pre>

Python3 script to zero fill the disk - Revision history

Numberformat at 19:11, 3 April 2022

Numberformat: Created page with "This page has the python script that can be used to zero fill the empty space on a disk. Doing this helps save space when compressing the image file. First step is to insert..."