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Formatting Question

S

SerialThriller

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 15, 2004
Messages
359
1. Is formatting basically just wiping everything off and returning it to what it was when you got the HDD?

2. Before i formatted the drive there was nothing on the drive that i could see in Windows but Windows said that 5 GB was used. Any thoughts on why this is?

3. I recently formatted a 19.0 GB HDD. After adding the primary partition it said 19 KB was used...any ideas on why this happened?

4. After doing a disk cleanup on the drive (which had nothing on it btw) the used portion went up to 96 KB. Any ideas on this one?
 
There are two types of formatting for a hard drive. There is an upper level format and a lower level format.

Upper level format is the type that most people use when reinstalling windows. It erases the information on the drive so it is blank and sets it to a file standard so an operating system can be loaded onto it. For instance when you install XP you have to format the drive with NTFS or FAT32 or else windows does not recognize the drive. If the drive had been formatted for a linux operating system then windows would require you to format it to the NTFS or FAT32.

Lower level format is a more thorough form of formatting. Being more thorough it takes a lot longer. A lower level format replaces each bit of memory on the drive with alternating ones and zeros. Every last one. 8 bits = 1 byte and 1024 bytes = 1 kilobyte, so it takes awhile.

I'm not sure if you formatted your harddrive in windows, but the files may have been hidden from view.

When you added the partition it probably loaded information onto the hdd so the OS knew a partition existed. If you do a low level format all info is lost, even partition information.

Disk cleanup may have added some system files that are essential.
 
tks a lot for the info, though i still don't understand the difference between low level and high level formatting besides the fact that one takes longer.
 
The truth on formatting:

Low-level format was done years ago (10+) on drives that required you to physically set up the tracks. It is not done anymore, no matter what any tool you use may say. It is done at the factory, before the drive is shipped, and never again thereafter.

edit: It's not even possible for you to actually low-level format a modern drive anymore.

Now to answer your questions:

1. No. Formatting creates the initial file table and structures of the file system on the disk(NTFS/FAT/FAT32/etc..). It does not return the drive to factory condition, because you still have your partition(s) on the drive after a format. Formatting can be done using a "quick" method, which will delete the file table, and create a new one, or the regular method, which will overwrite the whole disk with 0's. The regular method is recommended on older drives, as it physically tests the media for errors while formatting.

2. System Restore creates a hidden directory on your hard drive for system recovery purposes. Unless you turn it off, it uses space on all of your hard drives for System Restore. This is probably where that 5gb of space went.

3. System Restore has probably already taken up space on the drive. ;)

4. Same..
 
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