Is /dev/zero Unsafe to Use on Cygwin?

Question

So I ran the following command in Cygwin: dd if=/dev/zero of=E:

Now my C: drive lost all its free space. Upon unpluggin my E: drive from its USB port, the PC automatically shuts down. Is /dev/zero being created within the C: drive, and if so does that make it potentially unsafe to use with Cygwin?

You probably created a file named `E:` -- but this isn't a programming question. — Keith Thompson, Sep 24 '16 at 05:09

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 24 '16 at 06:13

Writing directly to disks is really DANGEROUS on any system

On cygwin the disks as physical entities are not the windows letter E: or the logical /cygdrive/e entities

If you want to completely overwrite the physical structure

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdXX

Pay REALLY attention to your final destination, or you will BLOW your system.

/dev/sda full first disk
/dev/sda1 first disk, first partition
/dev/sdb full second disk
/dev/sdb1 second disk, first partition
and so on...

Is /dev/zero Unsafe to Use on Cygwin?

1 Answers1