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--- computing:storage:zero_fill_disk [2019/02/23 16:55]
gcooper
+++ computing:storage:zero_fill_disk [2020/04/30 19:43] (current)
gcooper
@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 There may be various reasons to zero-fill the free space on a disk drive:
-  * Make the disk more compressible for backup
+  * Make the disk **more compressible** for backup
+  * **Faster** than a secure-erase
+  * Will force a drive to **retire any bad sectors** in empty space before they are reused
-<note warning>This may cause a thinly provisioned virtual disk to balloon out to it's full size!</note>
+<note warning>Do **not** do this on SSD drives!</note>
+<note warning>This may cause a thinly provisioned virtual disk to balloon out to it's fully provisioned size!  But it can also have a profound impact in the size of VM (image) backups.</note>
 ===== Windows =====
 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/sdelete
-:!: ''sdelete'' can also be used for secure erase.
 <file>
 sdelete -z x:
 </file>
+:!: ''sdelete'' can also be used for secure erase.
 ===== Linux =====
 https://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/zerofree
+https://snippets.khromov.se/shrinking-a-virtualbox-linux-image-with-zerofree/
 <file>
 zerofree /dev/sdx1
 </file>

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