How many times can you reformat a HDD?

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Osiris

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How many times can you reformat a HDD? I've reformatted, partitioned, etc, etc, etc, at least over a 1000 times since XP came out on the same two HDDs. I get to a certain point of reformatting the drives a number of time, that I cant install any programs on my drive, so I have to switch my drive with a new one and everything works fine, but I can install XP fine. Right now I'm trying to install Symantec, when it gets halfway thru the install, I hear a small "click", Windows locks up and I have to reboot. So I was thinking my problem was reformatting my HDD to many times. I do this for testing purposes thats why I have done it so many times.
 
Theoretically there will be no limit, as when you reformat the magnetic structure of the disk will be 'refreshed' in a sense.

The clicking is usually due to head crash, the read/write head of the disk has hit the disk and scratched it, and it clicks when it goes over the groove. It cannot use that part of the disk.
 
So why do you think my HDD does this when install a program? I just installed XP and that went fine, but I cant install programs. Hmmm....
 
Just programs? Wierd. Maybe it's a coincidence that XP doesn't use any damaged parts of the disk, but programs do (if it is really damage).
 
I just now tried to install Nero so I can burn DVDs, got about half way thru it, "click" "Freeze" had to reboot. I think I'm going to have to get a new HDD. This just happened recently.
 
Well just have an XP partition, and install XP onto it, and then have another partition and install programs onto that one. Make them about half the drive size each. It's worth a try.
 
I ran Nero again and it went thru. It wont let me select an installation destination. I ran the update and it worked fine. Now I'm going to try and copy a dvd.
 
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