Format two hard drives at same time?

Joined
Oct 7, 2006
Messages
58
Hi, gang,

Couldn't find answer to this anywhere...

Can I format (slow, full GPT format in Win 7) two 4-TB SATA-3 hard drives at the same time?

I need to test and format a pair of hard drives (no RAID, just separate drives), but full-formatting takes a long time and I wanna speed that up without having to use two different PCs.

Even if it works, is there any reason to/no to do this?

As always, thanks,

--sohosources
 
Do you have a specific need to do a full format on both? I only ever need to do this when some pending sectors have formed so that the drive can ultimately determine if those sectors should be remapped or not. If SMART status shows fine, just do a quick format. Now if you wish to secure erase them, I like to use Parted Magic to issue the SATA secure erase command and it only takes a few minutes per drive. No real need to do multipass secure erase methods unless compliance calls for it. If you really do wish to do full formats, use separate CMD consoles with diskpart or PowerShell sessions with Format-Volume and there should be no problem doing both simultaneously.
 
You can full format as many drives at the same time as you want. Total speed will be limited by the controller.
 
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