[Bug 484252] Re: Format action wipes all partitions

[Evan Dandrea]

On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 7:04 PM, Steve Langasek
<steve.langasek at canonical.com> wrote:
> We don't necessarily need to support installing to a single partition on
> the disk if that's error-prone in other ways, but we should definitely
> make it clear that the entire disk will be formatted.

This is already the case. The button says "Erase Disk" not "Erase
Partition."

I'm happy with us being explicit about it to avoid the confusion of
selecting what looks like a partition and then acting on the entire
device. I think this would entail throwing up a dialog that said "The
entire contents of $USB_DEVICE_NAME will be lost. Do you want to
continue?"

I do not think just formatting a partition is the right approach for
the reasons I outlined in my previous comment:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/usb-creator/+bug/484252/comments/7

Adding to that list, usb-creator and other tools write to the MBR,
which would not be cleared by just wiping the partition and its VBR.

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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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