question about format , does it affect the hard drive?

Discussion in 'Storage Devices' started by Dr DigiTaL, Oct 8, 2006.

  1. Dr DigiTaL

    Dr DigiTaL Geek Trainee

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    hi all,

    here is my question !

    does the format affects the hard drive badly if some one made it several times ?

    when i say for example
    format c:
    or
    Format c:/q

    does this affects the hard drive badly ??
     
  2. donkey42

    donkey42 plank

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    i don't know if this command would acctually work
    Code:
    Format c:/q
    i know the command as
    Code:
    Format c: /q
    but to answer your question, the
    Code:
    /q
    tells DOS to do a format quickly, a drive then appers blank but the data is still recoverable (unless data location has been overwritten), unlike not specifying the
    Code:
    /q
    hope that helps
     
  3. zeus

    zeus out of date

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    All a format does is mark the sectors on the drive as writable. format c: does this but then does a surface scan.
    Im guessing format c: /q simply skips the surface scan.
    The surface scan is definatly the slow part of format c:

    As for it damaging the drive; no, if anything the format c: /q will be safer as its doing less. Its effectively deleting the data as if it were done in windows but the boot sector also.
     
  4. Dr DigiTaL

    Dr DigiTaL Geek Trainee

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    thnx for reply

    but i heard that applying the command ( format c: ) many times affects the hard drive badly and causes bad sectors

    is that true ?
     
  5. donkey42

    donkey42 plank

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    well, concidering that a HDD works magnetically, theoretically i would think, no, but in reality, i don't know, but i wouldn't have thought it would
     
  6. zeus

    zeus out of date

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    On the basis of how often Willz changes OSs; he should know! :)
     
  7. Karanislove

    Karanislove It's D Grav80 Of Luv

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    The only thing I know that Flash drives has a particular number of times to format and write the data but never heard about HDD... When I was in college, they had old P3 computers with 10GB HDD.. Students used to practice Windows/Server installation practice on it everyday. Around 3-4 times formatting everyday but never heard about any problem with the HDD's in it.
     
  8. Big B

    Big B HWF Godfather

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    No. As mechanical devices, hard drives will eventually wear out. Head crashes and strong magnetic fields can cause damage to the drive. So long as you're not dropping the hard drive or computer, hard drives will last quite a while. Manufacturing issues can be another problem, but as for formatting, no, that's completely false.
     

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