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Format / Wipe Physical Disk

Disk Manager · Utilities~5 minView script

Securely wipe or format a physical disk on the Proxmox host. ProxMenux only shows disks that are fully free (no system use, no guest reference, no mounts) and forces a double confirmation — yes/no plus typing the full disk path — before destroying any data.

Destructive tool

Every operation here writes to the disk. There is no undo. ProxMenux applies strict safety filters and confirmations, but the responsibility for picking the right disk is yours. Read the disk path out loud twice before you type it.

How the script runs

The flow has two phases with a triple-gate safety filter in between. The disk list, the operation mode and the file system details are all collected in Phase 1; nothing is written until Phase 2 passes a final re-validation right before executing.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  PHASE 1 — Filter, choose, confirm          │
│  (nothing touched yet)                      │
└──────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘
                   ▼
      Detect disks on host (lsblk)
                   │
                   ▼
      Visibility filter
      ├─ Hidden: root / swap / system-mounted
      ├─ Hidden: active ZFS / LVM / RAID members
      ├─ Hidden: referenced by any VM/LXC config
      └─ Shown: fully free disks (⚠ for stale sigs)
                   │
                   ▼
      User picks a disk
                   │
                   ▼
      Operation mode
      ├─ 1. Wipe all         (partitions + sigs)
      ├─ 2. Remove FS labels (data preserved)
      ├─ 3. Zero all data    (partitions kept)
      └─ 4. Full format      (new GPT + mkfs)
                   │
                   ▼
      Mode = 4? → extra questions
      ├─ Filesystem: ext4 / xfs / exfat / btrfs
      │    └─ if tool missing (mkfs.btrfs,
      │       mkfs.exfat) → abort with hint
      └─ Optional label
                   │
                   ▼
      ╔════════════════════════════════════╗
      ║  Double confirmation gate           ║
      ║  (1) yes/no dialog with summary     ║
      ║  (2) type the full disk path exactly║
      ║      (e.g. /dev/sdc)                ║
      ║  Any mismatch → abort               ║
      ╚══════════════════╤═════════════════╝
                         │
  ┌──────── Cancel   OR   Confirm ────┐
  ▼                                   ▼
Exit, nothing        ┌─────────────────┴─────────────────┐
was changed          │  PHASE 2 — Execute                 │
                     └─────────────────┬─────────────────┘
                                       ▼
                       Pre-execution re-validation
                       (state may have changed since
                        Phase 1 — user just confirmed)
                       ├─ Disk now hosts system mount?
                       │    → hard block, abort
                       ├─ Disk now in root ZFS pool?
                       │    → hard block, abort
                       ├─ Disk has active swap?
                       │    → hard block, abort
                       └─ Data partitions still mounted?
                          → auto-unmount; abort if fails
                                       │
                                       ▼
                       Run the selected mode:
                       ┌─────────────────────────────────┐
                       │ 1. Wipe all                     │
                       │    wipefs -af <disk>            │
                       │    sgdisk --zap-all <disk>      │
                       ├─────────────────────────────────┤
                       │ 2. Remove FS labels             │
                       │    wipefs -af <disk>            │
                       │    + wipefs -af each partition  │
                       │    (partition table PRESERVED)  │
                       ├─────────────────────────────────┤
                       │ 3. Zero all data                │
                       │    For each partition:          │
                       │      dd if=/dev/zero of=<part>  │
                       │         bs=4M                   │
                       │    (partition table PRESERVED)  │
                       ├─────────────────────────────────┤
                       │ 4. Full format                  │
                       │    wipefs -af <disk>            │
                       │    sgdisk --zap-all <disk>      │
                       │    sgdisk -n 1:0:0 -t 1:8300    │
                       │      <disk>                     │
                       │    mkfs.<fs> [-L <label>]       │
                       │      <disk>1                    │
                       └─────────────────────────────────┘
                                       │
                                       ▼
                       Final summary (operation + disk +
                       bytes touched if applicable)

Visibility rules

Before the menu even appears, ProxMenux filters the disk list. Only candidates that are provably safe are shown:

  • Shown — disks not used by the host (root pool, swap, mounted, active ZFS/LVM/RAID) and not referenced by any VM/LXC config (running or stopped).
  • Hidden — host / system disks.
  • Hidden — disks referenced by a VM/LXC config.

Safety at confirmation and execution

  • Disks with stale / active metadata show detailed warnings before you confirm.
  • Disks used by a running VM are hard-blocked at confirmation.
  • Disks with mounted partitions are hard-blocked at execution (a fresh re-validation runs right before anything is written).
  • Two confirmations are always required: yes/no dialog + typing the full disk path exactly.

Operation modes

After picking a disk you choose one of four modes. They differ in what they destroy and what they leave behind:

ModePartition tableDataUse case
1. Wipe allDestroyedSignatures wipedStarting fresh: everything on the disk goes, ready for a new layout.
2. Remove FS labelsPreservedPreservedClears stale ZFS / LVM / RAID signatures so the disk stops being auto-claimed, without touching the data.
3. Zero all dataPreservedDestroyed (zeroed)Sanitise before handing the disk over, keeping the existing partition layout.
4. Full formatNew GPTDestroyedReady-to-use disk with a single new partition and a fresh filesystem.

Full format continues with two extra dialogs:

  • Filesystem — ext4, xfs, exfat (portable), or btrfs. Missing tools (for example mkfs.btrfs) abort with a clear message.
  • Label — optional filesystem label for identification.

Step-by-step

Step 1

Pick a free disk

ProxMenux lists every disk that passes the visibility filters above. Disks with ⚠ markers carry stale metadata and are shown with the details so you know what you are about to overwrite.

Step 2

Pick an operation mode

Choose between Wipe all, Remove FS labels, Zero all data or Full format according to the table above.

Step 3

(Full format only) Pick filesystem and label

ext4 / xfs / exfat / btrfs, plus an optional label.

Step 4

Confirm twice

ProxMenux shows a summary of what will happen. You accept with a yes/no dialog and type the full disk path exactly as shown (for example /dev/sdc). Anything else aborts.

Step 5

Re-validation and execution

Just before writing, the script re-checks the disk state. If a partition has been mounted or a VM started in the meantime, execution is aborted. Otherwise the chosen operation runs and a summary is printed at the end.

Manual equivalents

If you prefer to run the equivalent commands by hand:

# --- mode 1: wipe all (partition table + signatures) ---
wipefs -af /dev/sdX
sgdisk --zap-all /dev/sdX

# --- mode 2: remove FS labels only (keep partitions + data) ---
wipefs -af /dev/sdX           # clears superblock signatures
# (do NOT run sgdisk --zap-all; it would wipe the partition table)

# --- mode 3: zero all data (keep partition table) ---
for p in /dev/sdX?*; do
  dd if=/dev/zero of="$p" bs=4M status=progress || true
done

# --- mode 4: full format (new GPT + filesystem) ---
wipefs -af /dev/sdX
sgdisk --zap-all /dev/sdX
sgdisk -n 1:0:0 -t 1:8300 /dev/sdX         # one partition, Linux filesystem
mkfs.ext4 -L mylabel /dev/sdX1             # pick the fs you want

Disk not listed in the menu

It was filtered for safety. Common reasons: it is mounted (even at /mnt/tmp), it is an active ZFS / LVM / RAID member, it is referenced by a VM or LXC config, or it is your Proxmox root disk. Run lsblk -f and cat /proc/mdstat on the host to understand why.

"Disk may be busy" / unmount failed

Something is still holding an open file on a partition of that disk — most often a container or a shell whose cwd is inside a mountpoint. Identify it with lsof | grep /dev/sdX or fuser -vm /dev/sdX1, stop it, then re-run the tool.

Related

ProxMenux Scripts: Previous
Import Disk to LXC
ProxMenux Scripts: Next
SMART Disk Health & Test