how long does it take to do a complete low level format on a 30gb HD

[eshtog]

its been like 2 hours and the progress hasent changed

 

[eshtog]

I need to know asap I will be leaving soon thanks!

 

[Turin39789]

why are you low level formatting in the first place?

 

[eshtog]

I just want to clean wipe the hd and install windows

 

[JC]

Hmm....low-level formats are pretty slow, as I recall. I haven't done 30GB that way, but I'm thinking over 2 hours is entirely possible.

Too bad you couldn't have done a format /q (quickformat)....that would've only taken seconds 😀

 

[eshtog]

is it worth doing a low level format insttead of the one when installing windows xp?

 

[boyRacer]

Should take an hour and a half to two... takes my 120 5-6 if i remember correctly.

 

[Freejack2]

Umm if it's an IDE drive it doesn't need to be low level formatted. You could have just booted to a dos prompt typed format c: (/s if you want it to boot into dos)
Would have formatted pretty quick. I haven't dealt with low level formatting of IDE drives in years but if I recall correctly you need to have the proper low level formatter for your drive, otherwise you can screw the drive up.

 

[eshtog]

must be something wrong with mine I have Wester digital and I have a flashing word that says erase in progress, but my elapsed time is not changing either is my erase progress

Originally posted by: boyRacer
Should take an hour and a half to two... takes my 120 5-6 if i remember correctly.

 

[Shawn]

a long time. It took an hour to low level format an old 120MB hard drive I had.

 

[NokiaDude]

Takes 6 hrs for my 40gb WD HD.

 

[Psycho18]

took me about 30min to format my 30gig hd.

 

[eshtog]

Originally posted by: NokiaDude
Takes 6 hrs for my 40gb WD HD.

did your elapsed time update at all? because mine doesent,
also mine went for 2 hours without the progress changing how did yours go?

 

[XZeroII]

1.) What utility are you using?
2.) Who makes the drive?
3.) Why are you low level formatting?

Low level formats will actually write 0's to your entire harddrive. A regular format just clears the "table of contents". All the pages of the book are still there, but w/o that TOC, the computer has no way of knowing what those pages are. Only low level format if you have very sensative information that you want destroyed.

 

[eshtog]

I am using wd's low level format utility
my drive is a wd
I just want to wipe my HD Clean

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: eshtog
I am using wd's low level format utility
my drive is a wd
I just want to wipe my HD Clean

Don't worry, the FBI can still retrieve those bomb plans 😉

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: Freejack2
Umm if it's an IDE drive it doesn't need to be low level formatted. ....if I recall correctly you need to have the proper low level formatter for your drive, otherwise you can screw the drive up.

yes Freejack2 is correct, good luck , hope your drive still works

only scsi drives should be low level formatted through the controller bios, and even those spareingly

 

[IcemanJer]

I usually just write zeros to all sectors when I want to wipe a harddrive... a 30gig drive is probably like 3 and a half hours if the 18giger I was playing with took about 1:45.

 

[JC]

Originally posted by: FoBoT

Originally posted by: Freejack2
Umm if it's an IDE drive it doesn't need to be low level formatted. ....if I recall correctly you need to have the proper low level formatter for your drive, otherwise you can screw the drive up.

yes Freejack2 is correct, good luck , hope your drive still works

only scsi drives should be low level formatted through the controller bios, and even those spareingly

Did you miss the part where he said he's using WD's drive utility? And no, Freejack2 is only partially correct. Low-level formatting doesn't need to be done, unless you want to totally erase the drive. Which is what eshtog said he wanted to do.

 

[JC]

Originally posted by: IcemanJer
I usually just write zeros to all sectors when I want to wipe a harddrive

That's what low-level formatting is 😉

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: JC

Originally posted by: IcemanJer
I usually just write zeros to all sectors when I want to wipe a harddrive

That's what low-level formatting is 😉

Well at least that is what the meaning of 'low-level format' has become since the advent of IDE drives. It wasn't always so.

Some people are dinosaurs and will refuse to 'update' their understanding of archaic terms which have been dusted-off to mean something else.

Yes...100 years ago low-level format was something different. Today, its writing zeros to the drive in order to 'wipe' or 'erase' all data instead of just clearing the FAT/TOC but leaving your data untouched.

A low-level format or 'zero-write' is highly advised before you sell or transfer ownership of your computer or hard disk drive. A regular 'format' (the 10 minute one) will not prevent the recovery of your data using common data recovery (unformat/unerase) utilities. A low-level format or zero-write will.

And my 30GB Maxtor took like 4 hours the last time I did it. My 40GB took almost 6 hours.