low level format for usb hard drive?

wesley · 31 Jan 2011 at 17:21

hi

i am looking for a software for win7 laptop so i can do the low level format on usb external hard drives.

which one you would recommend?

thanks

lord filbuster · 31 Jan 2011 at 18:03

hddguru can do it . I've used it before on an old hard drive in an enclosure.

hansp · 31 Jan 2011 at 18:19

diskpart can overwrite with zeroes. Since Vista a full format also overwrite with zeroes.

masterluke · 1 Feb 2011 at 13:44

Low level formatting isnt often a very good idea. What are you trying to achieve from this?

uv · 1 Feb 2011 at 15:13

Use diskpart

CMD >

Code:

diskpart
list disk
select disk (number of correct drive here)
clean all

the "all" switch for clean tells it to overwrite - or 'zero' the whole drive. Without this, "clean" just overwrites the MBR and partition tables.

You can then set up the drive with these further commands:

Code:

create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=ntfs
assign
exit

wesley · 1 Feb 2011 at 17:13

thanks guys, i got few very old hard drives, want to format them properly before dispose them

tntcoder · 1 Feb 2011 at 17:19

wesley said:
thanks guys, i got few very old hard drives, want to format them properly before dispose them

Go for the tried and test solution - http://www.dban.org/

masterluke · 1 Feb 2011 at 20:35

;im sure any of these methods will destroy the data fairly effectively (which is what you want). However none of them are low level formatting. Low level formatting is not the same thing as zeroing a drive or removing and recreating and formatting partitions.

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/geom/formatLow-c.html

hansp · 1 Feb 2011 at 21:48

Many people just confuses low level formatting with zeroing.