Erase dvd/cd-rw from Linux command line

14 October 2022 by Luke Reynolds

Erasing a BD-RE, DVD-RW, or CD-RW disk on a Linux system can be as easy as entering one line command using the wodim utility. In this tutorial, you will see how to erase a rewritable disk (Blu Ray, DVD, or CD) on Linux via command line.

In this tutorial you will learn:

How to erase a rewritable disk using wodim command

Erase dvd/cd-rw from Linux command line

Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Category	Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System	Any Linux distro
Software	wodim
Other	Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the `sudo` command.
Conventions	# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of `sudo` command $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Erase dvd/cd-rw from Linux command line step by step instructions

In case it is not already installed, you can use the following command to install wodim on Ubuntu, Debian and Linux Mint:
```
$ sudo apt install wodim
```

The next step is to identify our CD/DVD burner block device file name with the wodim --devices command:

$ wodim --devices
wodim: Overview of accessible drives (1 found) :
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 0  dev='/dev/scd0'     rwrw-- : 'TSSTcorp' 'CD/DVDW SH-S183L'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next, we will use the fast method to erase the disk:
```
$ wodim -v blank=fast dev=/dev/scd0
```
In case if you run into some error during the blanking process you may try to include a -force option:
```
$ wodim -v -force blank=fast dev=/dev/scd0
```

In case you prefer a different method, you can see the other blanking methods with the following command:

$ wodim blank=help
Blanking options:
	all		blank the entire disk
	disk		blank the entire disk
	disk		blank the entire disk
	fast		minimally blank the entire disk (PMA, TOC, pregap)
	minimal		minimally blank the entire disk (PMA, TOC, pregap)
	track		blank a track
	unreserve	unreserve a track
	trtail		blank a track tail
	unclose		unclose last session
	session		blank last session

Closing Thoughts

In this tutorial, we saw how to erase a rewritable Blu Ray, DVD, or CD disk via the command line on a Linux system. The wodim utility makes this task very painless, and includes numerous different blanking methods depending on your preference.

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