Merge lp:~clissold345/ubuntu-docs/fix-for-1651360 into lp:~ubuntu-core-doc/ubuntu-docs/trunk2017-07-10

[Chris Perry]

I've made "wipe" a bit more prominent in the text since "wipe" is the term used in the page title.

Terminology: "USB flash drive".

I've assumed that the options that Disks offers in formatting the disk and creating a partition are sensible so I haven't described them. I've written the text for users who aren't much interested in the technical details, they just want something that works (most of the time).

The only decision that the user needs to make is whether to securely wipe the disk (or not). The message in the GUI is a bit confusing since it implies that a secure wipe isn't always secure (presumably it is secure if the format completes without error messages?).

I've deleted the mention of the shred command since if Disks can do a secure wipe the user doesn't need to use shred.

Do you mind running through the procedures for me (if you can)? Disks (16.04) was regularly closing and giving error messages while I was trying to check the procedures. The USB flash drive that I'm using seems to be fine since partition operations on it in Gparted work fine.

I deliberately started from the beginning in procedure 2, just in case the user closed Disks after wiping the disk. Of course I could have instead assumed that the user was still in Disks with the disk selected.

[Doug Smythies (dsmythies)]

A few years ago Ubuntu desktop help was very very tightly linked with gnome help, and the majority of the files were the same. Subtle required differences were dealt with via the "if:choose" - "if:when test platform" stuff.

The last time we re-synced with the gnome help source was a few years ago, and Kevin Goodby was the driving lead. Prior to that, Jeremy used to push stuff up to gnome help to help keep the files in sync (or so I think it was).

With the deletion of the "if" conditions, we need to be aware that we are deviating from the past process, and it will difficult to go back. I think it is O.K. to go this way (mainly because I don't even use gnome and was never a contributor to gnome help), I just want us all to be aware (and I think I mentioned this somewhere before).

References:
https://help.ubuntu.com/stable/ubuntu-help/disk-format.html
https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/disk-format.html.en

[Chris Perry (clissold345)]

Hi Doug, sorry about the confusion. Yes I removed the "if" conditions from this page. I didn't mention it in my comment because I OKed it with Gunnar by email before I did it. I think it would have been better if I'd sent the email to you as well as Gunnar. In future (where I think it's relevant) I think I'll send emails to both of you. Is that OK with you? Regards, Chris.

[Doug Smythies (dsmythies)]

Hi Chris,

O.K. thanks for the information. Yes, I'd like to get any e-mails about this stuff, although Gunnar and I do tend to think very much alike. Also, I know we had some discussion about this before, but I haven't been able to find the old e-mails or whatever.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Hi Doug,

Yeah, I'm very well aware of that implication. This is what I wrote to Chris:

> Yeah, go ahead and drop it. We have diverged from GNOME to such an
> extent that we won't be able to 'merge' their updates without careful
> proofreading anyway.

Right or wrong, but that's how I see it.

Ideally we would have had enough resources to keep in sync with GNOME as well as possible, but that's not the case. If/when we find the time to do it, then it will have to be quite a large project where we manually compare each and one of the pages we share with GNOME Help.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

This looks fine to me. I already tested it successfully when we started to talk via email.

I'd suggest that you merge this one, so we can focus on the other MP (where I have a few thoughts).

review: Approve

[Chris Perry (clissold345)]

Thanks for your reply. So I want to push my local copy of the help up to and including revision 585? What's the command to do that?

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Ouch.. I don't know.

Let's wait then, and finalize the discussion about the other page, and then you can push both.

[Doug Smythies (dsmythies)]

I could do the merge, since I have not pulled the stuff yet. I would only have to merge this one, and then push it. However, since the other one includes both, I think it might mess things up.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

That's true, Doug. But yes, the revision history gets cleaner if we wait, and since this is two separate pages I think it makes most sense to wait.

[Chris Perry (clissold345)]

I had a look at:

http://doc.bazaar.canonical.com/bzr.dev/en/tutorials/tutorial.html

I'd say that the command is likely to be:

bzr push -r ..585 lp:ubuntu-docs

(push everything up to and including revision 585).

Is it safe for me to try it?

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj)]

Sure, go ahead. Nothing will explode if you do, and we may learn something. :)

[Chris Perry (clissold345)]

bzr didn't like my first guess (see earlier comment) but this command worked:

bzr push -r 585 lp:ubuntu-docs

So trunk is now up to revision 585.

=== modified file 'ubuntu-help/C/disk-format.page'
--- ubuntu-help/C/disk-format.page	2014-02-03 22:25:25 +0000
+++ ubuntu-help/C/disk-format.page	2016-12-30 10:06:03 +0000
@@ -14,65 +14,84 @@
     <revision pkgversion="3.4.0" date="2012-02-19" status="review"/>
     <revision version="13.10" date="2013-09-07" status="review"/>
 
-    <desc>Remove all of the files and folders from an external hard disk or USB
+    <desc>Delete all of the files and folders from an external hard disk or USB
     flash drive by formatting it.</desc>
+
     <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
   </info>
 
-<title>Wipe everything off a removable disk</title>
+<title>Wipe the data off a removable disk and reuse it</title>
 
-  <p>If you have a removable disk, like a USB memory stick or an external hard
- disk, you may sometimes wish to completely remove all of its files and
+  <p>If you have a removable disk, like a USB flash drive or an external hard
+ disk, you may sometimes wish to wipe the disk, that is, completely delete all its files and
  folders. You can do this by <em>formatting</em> the disk - this deletes all
- of the files on the disk and leaves it empty.</p>
-
+ the files on the disk and leaves it empty.</p>
+
+
+<p>To format a removable disk:</p>
 <steps>
- <title>Format a removable disk</title>
+
   <item>
-<if:choose>
-<if:when test="platform:unity">
    <p>Open the <app>Disks</app> application from the <gui>Dash</gui>.</p>
-</if:when>
-   <p>Open the <app>Disks</app> application from the <gui>Activities</gui>
-   overview.</p>
-</if:choose>
   </item>
+
   <item>
-   <p>Select the disk you want to wipe from the <gui>Storage Devices</gui> list.</p>
+   <p>Select the disk that you want to wipe from the list on the left.</p>
 
   <note style="warning">
-   <p>Make sure that you have selected the correct disk! If you choose the wrong
- disk, all of the files on the other disk will be deleted!</p>
+   <p>Make sure that you have selected the correct disk! If you select the wrong
+ disk, all the files on the other disk will be deleted!</p>
   </note>
-  </item>
-  <item>
-   <p>In the Volumes section, click <gui>Unmount Volume</gui>. Then click
-   <gui>Format Volume</gui>.</p>
-  </item>
-  <item>
-   <p>In the window that pops up, choose a filesystem <gui>Type</gui> for the
-   disk.</p>
-   <p>If you use the disk on Windows and Mac OS computers in addition to Linux
-   computers, choose <gui>FAT</gui>. If you only use it on Windows, <gui>NTFS</gui>
-   may be a better option. A brief description of the <gui>file system type</gui>
-   will be presented as a label.</p>
-  </item>
-  <item>
-   <p>Give the disk a name and click <gui>Format</gui> to begin wiping the disk.</p>
-  </item>
-  <item>
-   <p>Once the formatting has finished, <gui>safely remove</gui> the disk. It
-   should now be blank and ready to use again.</p>
-  </item>
-</steps>
-
-<note style="warning">
- <title>Formatting a disk does not securely delete your files</title>
-  <p>Formatting a disk is not a completely secure way of wiping all of its
- data. A formatted disk will not appear to have files on it, but it is
- possible that special recovery software could retrieve the files. If you
- need to securely delete the files, you will need to use a command-line
- utility, such as <app>shred</app>.</p>
-</note>
+<p> 
+</p>
+  </item>
+
+
+  <item>
+   <p>Click the menu button and then click <gui>Format Disk...</gui>. The <gui>Format Disk</gui> window opens.</p>
+  </item>
+
+  <item>
+   <p>If you want to securely wipe the data from the disk, select <gui>Overwrite existing data with zeroes</gui>
+   from the <gui>Erase</gui> dropdown list.</p>
+  </item>
+
+  <item>
+   <p>Click <gui>Format...</gui>.</p>
+  </item>
+
+  <item>
+   <p>In the window that opens click <gui>Format</gui> to begin wiping the disk.
+   Once the formatting has finished the disk contents will be listed as "Unallocated Space".</p>
+  </item>
+</steps>
+
+<p>In order to reuse the wiped disk you must create one or more partitions.
+The simplest case is where you create one partition that fills the whole disk:</p>
+
+<steps>
+
+  <item>
+   <p>Open the <app>Disks</app> application from the <gui>Dash</gui>.</p>
+  </item>
+
+  <item>
+   <p>Select the disk from the list on the left.</p>
+  </item>
+
+  <item>
+   <p>Click the <gui>+</gui> button. The <gui>Create Partition</gui> window opens.</p>
+  </item>
+
+  <item>
+   <p>Type a name for the partition into the <gui>Name</gui> field.</p>
+  </item>
+
+    <item>
+    <p>Click <gui>Create</gui> to create the partition. You can now store data on the disk.</p>
+    </item>
+
+</steps>
+
 
 </page>