• too much formatting-is it bad for my 5-years old HDD?
    17 replies, posted
OK today I've decided to install windows 7 on my PC again, because the previous install got messed up by me. So I install it and than I screwet up(lucky me), so I repeat that three times. That means that I have formated my HDD three times this day. Is that bad fot my HDD?
If anything, it's good for the drive because it gives it the opportunity to fix bad sectors. I know a bunch of people who have hard drives more than 10 years old and I'm sure they've formatted plenty of times on them.
[QUOTE=Dr Nick;25587417]If anything, it's good for the drive because it gives it the opportunity to fix bad sectors. I know a bunch of people who have hard drives more than 10 years old and I'm sure they've formatted plenty of times on them.[/QUOTE] I'm not asking if formatting is bad for my HDD.. I'm asking if formatting it three times in one day is bad...
IIRC, HDDs don't wear out because of IO-operations, but more by being constantly spinning.
It won't catch fire and die if that's what you're asking.
Spinning, especially in excessively hot or dusty environments does more damage than anything else.
I thought it's spinning up and spinning down often that damages the motors? Not constant spinning.
Short Answer : No. Long Answer: Depends on what kind of formatting, assuming we are talking about the one that you do when you install windows (Called a High-Level Format) then no that does nothing to the hard drive except install a new boot sector and sets all data on the HDD as "Empty" (Even though it cannot be physically removed without a Low-Level Format). If you do a long format through the XP Disc that just does a CD Check for Disc Defects (I personally use a third party one called HDD Regenerator). There are also Low-Level Formats which do pretty much what the High-Level ones do except instead of just marking the sectors as "Empty" it actually erases them by writing blank or random binary data to the hard drive. These can do days or hours depending on how many passes you do of it. There are no performance benefits from either formats because every sector is always got data in it even if it is "Empty" its still Empty data there and any user data overwrites the sector, but this can lead to sector corruption as with every type of write operation. As for degrading of drives, its just simply performing write operations when formatting. You will do more damage just switching off and on the computer every day instead of leaving it running, so don't worry friend.
It won't hurt it. SSDs on the other hand...
[QUOTE=GawdOfROFLS;25590059]It won't hurt it. SSDs on the other hand...[/QUOTE] also wouldnt be hurt by a high level format
[QUOTE=GawdOfROFLS;25590059]It won't hurt it. SSDs on the other hand...[/QUOTE] You're thinking of defragmenting an SSD.
[QUOTE=GawdOfROFLS;25590059]It won't hurt it. SSDs on the other hand...[/QUOTE] A Low-Level format would. But only take a few days of its 10 odd years lifespan.
My old 10GB Maxtor Quantum Fireball was still kicking, until I dropped it anyway.
[QUOTE=Marnetmar;25601315]You're thinking of defragmenting an SSD.[/QUOTE] What would happen if you attempted that?
It does a lot of IO-operations that wear out the drive. It's also completely unnecessary because of the way SSDs work.
[QUOTE=Within;25611841]What would happen if you attempted that?[/QUOTE] Shortened life expectancy.
[QUOTE=Within;25611841]What would happen if you attempted that?[/QUOTE] It'd be done almost instantly, take a chunk outta it's lifespan and give zero improvement.
[QUOTE=wolfalt;25613499]It'd be done almost instantly, take a chunk outta it's lifespan and give zero improvement.[/QUOTE] Wait, is that from a anti-smoking ad?
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