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Reformatting

post #1 of 6
12/3/05 at 4:38pm
Thread Starter 
Does it wear down the hard drive if you reformat a lot? I have done it many times and im worried about its condition.
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post #2 of 6
12/3/05 at 5:59pm
^ Uhoh, as I reformatted three times in one day last time I did it. Wasn't quite awake for the first one, was angry the second one, and finally got it the third time...
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post #3 of 6
12/3/05 at 10:08pm
Reformating does NOT wear your HD out. Just be sure to keep it from overheating. THAT will kill the HD.
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post #4 of 6
12/3/05 at 10:48pm
Well, any reading, writing, even having your computer on will enivitably wear your hard drive. But for the most part, in short term, it's barely noticeable. Formating, there are things like Quick Format option in Windows Setup (xp), where it just edit the allocation tables on your hard drive. Your data is still there, it's just not register, therefore it's treated as good as gone. The other format is Full Format which will bombard a sector with a whole bunch crap to guarantee your data is almost permanantly erased. (It normally takes about 7 or so write cycles to almost permantly make 7-write-cycled data unrecoverable, basicaly Full Format will bombard a sector of your hard drive 7 or so times with random data so that things are almost permanantly erased). The latter, I would think, would wear your hard drive more. Again, short term, barely noticeable. Do it daily, probably within a year or less you'll notice your HD a bit more noisy.
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post #5 of 6
12/4/05 at 1:51am
Leo Laporte reformats his HD and makes full backup once a year. (every 6 months). Now this is if you do extensive windows manipulation and tweaking and if you're a heavy internet user (downloading and installing then uninstalling). However if you're just an average user then you need not reformat occassionaly.
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post #6 of 6
12/4/05 at 6:23am
Full format does not erase the data. It just performs a non-destructive read test on every single sector from beginning to end. At the very end, it wipes out the allocation table. The quick format just skips straight to the allocation table wipe. If a full format did any sort of real erase, then the unformat utilities in the world wouldn't work. Only analog equipment can read deeper than a single overwrite, and only the most sensitive analog equipment can read deeper than three overwrites.

Formatting your drive damages it in the pretty much the same way that normal driving damages your car's engine.
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