how long should a full format take on a usb external 1.5tb drive?

JamesUK · 31 Jul 2010 at 15:07

Hi, just a simple question, if you have done it recently and know the answer, i have recently bought a western digital elements 1.5tb usb ext drive, it seems very nice and also seems pretty fast, although i filled it full of junk and wanted to do a full format which i put on last night, and its still going now, so its been about 16 hours up to now, windows 7 formatting tool doesnt show how much in percent is complete, id say its about 90% though, and by how fast the bar has been moving it looks like theres still about 1 - 2 hours left.

Is this normal, due to usb speeds?

Thanks

James

Philtor · 31 Jul 2010 at 15:27

1.5TB is going to take an age indeed. I had to leave my 500GB drive for a good while to format. Not so much an issue with the fact it's USB just the size of the drive.

*edit* We are talking a full format here as opposed to a quick format?

AbsenceJam · 31 Jul 2010 at 15:39

Should take about 14 hours.

Don't know why you'd do a full format, enormous waste of time.

philtorrens said:
1.5TB is going to take an age indeed. I had to leave my 500GB drive for a good while to format. Not so much an issue with the fact it's USB just the size of the drive.

*edit* We are talking a full format here as opposed to a quick format?

Err USB will limit the speed to 30MB/s~ at best. It would be about 80MB/s on average with SATA/eSATA.

JamesUK · 31 Jul 2010 at 16:19

i may just do a quick format in the future, i have always been led to beleive a full format is always better though. maybe not?

Philtor · 31 Jul 2010 at 22:37

AbsenceJam said:
Should take about 14 hours.

Don't know why you'd do a full format, enormous waste of time .

Because a full format will also scan the disk for bad sectors. And regarding USB limiting speed - surely the speed of the actual drive is the limiting factor here??

Philtor · 31 Jul 2010 at 22:40

JamesUK said:
i may just do a quick format in the future, i have always been led to beleive a full format is always better though. maybe not?

With a brand new HDD your probably safe enough doing a quick format. I always do a full format because of the reason I mentioned in the above post.

AbsenceJam · 1 Aug 2010 at 09:49

JamesUK said:
i may just do a quick format in the future, i have always been led to beleive a full format is always better though. maybe not?

Full checks the disk as well but isn't as good as using a proper tool like the manufacturer one or even HDTune which you can run whilst the disk is formatted and in use.

AbsenceJam · 1 Aug 2010 at 09:49

philtorrens said:
Because a full format will also scan the disk for bad sectors. And regarding USB limiting speed - surely the speed of the actual drive is the limiting factor here??

Huh? Like I posted USB is limited to 30MB/s the drive would do at 80MB/s but it's limited by USB.

JamesUK · 1 Aug 2010 at 09:53

will hdtune format a drive as well yeh? or would i be best getting a formatting tool from western digital's website? i presum e this wouldn't be any faster, just better quality?