Format /p:0

[OspreyO]

Format /p:0

What happens when you use 0 as the number of passes?

I thinking its a default so "Format /p:0" will the the same as "Format /p:1"

 

[Confused Stu]

Sorry the answers a bit late, but I looked into this a few months back because it didn't make sense to me either. Turns out the number is the number of additional passes you want made, so /p:1 will actually make two passes.

Think there was something about additional passes being random numbers rather than all zeros, but don't quote me on that as I may have imagined it.

 

[OspreyO]

Cheers that makes sense.

Ended up using diskpart and "clean all" as that erases the whole disk in one go. Format only does one partition at a time.