I’m using architect to wipe my hdd before install, and I expected it to take quite a while for a 4tb drive, but it’s still running at well beyond 100% progress. So far it’s displaying -549%, and climbing . . . er, falling? I really don’t know, but the numbers keep going up. I watched it start the first few %, and I’d swear they were positive, and now that it’s displaying negative, I’m not sure what to think. I doubt it’s “unwiping” or reversed direction, and maybe means nothing other than being beyond 100%. What I really need to know is if this is supposed to run until manually interrupted, or if it’s supposed to stop once complete, and if I need to intervene is there any specific “correct” way, or just ctrl+c?
open another terminal
check in journal log
sudo journalctl -b0 -p err
sudo journalctl -b -p4also reports
inxi -Fza
sudo parted -l Not sure how to do that while it’s running, I don’t have a command prompt. Is it safe to use ctrl+c to stop it?
Use a separate terminal? 
How does one open a new terminal instance from within the architect installer? I’m glad you find this amusing. I don’t really have anything invested in the hdd, obviously not data, but that doesn’t automatically negate my cautious nature and allow me to start hammering away on my keyboard with complete abandon hoping something goes right.
Uhmm IIRC just as usual, try another console. CTRL+ALT+F1-12
can you add inxi
and returns
sudo pacman -Syu inxi
inxi -Fzayou cant format in MBR a disk with 4To !
see this topic
In case it wasn’t glaringly obvious, I’ve only dabbled in linux before, and don’t have much experience with anything outside of a running windows environment. I am capable of learning, but as of now I don’t have the prerequisite knowledge to grasp what you’re trying to convey here, or what I’m supposed to glean from the post linked. I could search online, but finding an explanation relevant to the issue at hand in an easily digested wording seems much more time consuming and uncertain than just asking you to expound upon it. Here is the output of inxa -Fza:
Ok, so I realized that it was probably a typo and you meant 4tb. I’m thinking of trying to wipe via dm-crypt as outlined here: dm-crypt/Drive preparation - ArchWiki
Will this have the same result? I haven’t the foggiest idea how to tell if mbr or gpt. Or if it is a variable I can set with a switch/arg? Also haven’t any clue if there’s any risk to killing wipe (still running, -665%) with ctrl+c since there’s no data on it to worry about losing. I don’t know if it could have a detrimental effect on the drive itself or impede it’s use afterwards.
please can you format before your disk in GPT ?
you will see after for dm-crypt and see this point
**Note:** When wiping large amount of data, the process will take several hours to several days to complete.as there is non return progress state , it will take many hours and perhaps days for that.
I assume you mean the drive to be wiped. It had been formatted as gpt for a previous install that I wasn’t satisfied with the setup the way I had it. I guess deleting all of the partitions in gparted before wiping was a mistake . . . or at least not following up by creating a gpt partition of the whole drive before wiping was.
Is using wipe, once the drive is reformatted for gpt, faster than dm-crypt then? Or is there a faster method I should be looking into that has the same supposed benefit of “protect against disclosure of usage patterns”?
Sorry for the late reply, is your problem still present?
PS:
wipefs will only wipe filesystem signatures from your drive, so you need to use a partition manager like fe. gdisk to create a new partition table.
After you have created a new GPT partition table you can add partitions and format those however you like.
To make it clear: MBR/GPT is a partition table format, not a file-system that needs to be formatted…
You can consider a partition table like an index of a book, which in this case is just a listing of which partition starts/ends at what sector on your hardisk.
I got it sorted out. I don’t recall what I used, but I suspected nobody was going to just drop in and hold my hand through it so I kept reading until I found a way to skin that cat.