Low level format on WD SATA

[EzzaB]

hi, i wanted to know if anyone could help me with low-level fomatting my 200gb wd SATA hdd? I've heard that there are risks involved, but i'm not quite sure. I want to low level format so i can have my hdd running smoothly like it used to when i first got it.

Standard formatting and quick formatting do help, but i know that the data is still there, because i can use a program like FinalData to restore them. Low level format should remove everything!

 

[waynejkruse10]

there is probly a option in the bios

 

[TheMajor]

Yes, my BIOS has an option to do that.

 

[GeckoEcho421]

I'm pretty sure that the non-quick format removes 99.9% of anything. The first time I formatted a hd I made the mistake of doing the quick format, and my computer was still running horribly slow.

 

[TheMajor]

non-quick and quick are the same, except that non-quick also does a scandisk for errors.

 

[rasputeena]

If normal (high level) hard disk formatting is required, you can use DOS FDISK command to first erase and create partitions and then use FORMAT. It is also a good idea when you hard disk becomes inaccessible to see if it is just the system files that are corrupted. Most of the time, it is the case. SYS will do the job of replacing system files. Therefore, low level format is always of LAST RESORT when you encounter HDD problems. But if you must:

Western Digital
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp

 

[waynejkruse10]

yeah, aviod the quick format.

 

[Josh18657]

I would recomend this free program.
http://www.killdisk.com/

Josh

 

[EricB]

Partition Magic secure erase feature in you have another comp.

 

[EzzaB]

hey guess what... my bios has low level format, but i'm not too sure if i want to use it. The motherboard book says this stuff about possibly damaging my hdd permantly! ahh!