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Writing zeros vs formatting

E

Emre

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 25, 2002
Messages
103
I installed the WD diagnostics utility and it has the writing zeros option built in..

Im wondering whats the difference between the 2.. I heard that when you get a new hard drive it is filled with zeros... so whats formatting does?

Which one is preffered ?
 
Formating is wiping the drive of your data, but it is still possible to 'get to' your data if you have the tools.

'Writing Zeros' is wiping you drive over and over until it is almost impossible for those that work outside of the NSA to access your previous data.

That is what I think anyway. Someone could shed more intelligent light on it I am sure.
 
Your right about the data. The difference is a format just sets the disk up to write data in FAT32 or NTFS format for example. It technically doesn't delete everything permanently until it gets written over. Writing zeros will kill all the data, but then you will need to format still to install an OS.
 
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