Is formatting a HD bad?

[Lasha]

Hey guys. Is formatting a hard drive bad - in general? Say, I just wanna wipe my drive and start clean like every six months, or so. Does formatting cause any type of damage (or even data loss) to the drive?

 

[Vybuni]

Well.... formatting a drive erases everthing on it, so if you want to format your drive, then you should back up all your essential data.

 

[Elbatrop1]

Well, formatting itself does, of course, get rid of everything on your hard drive. Personally, I like to reformat my Windows partition about every 4-6 months. I find after a reformat, it speeds Windows back up again.

Some alternatives include Registry Cleaners.

 

[Lasha]

I definitely understand the fact that formatting erases everything, but does it damage the disc inside the drive that stores the date? You know? Continuously erasing and writing date.

 

[Nitestick]

not unless you were to format repeatedly to a point where it would just be crazy. a reformat 1-2 times a year and a hdd that is used for average purposes will probably last 5-10 years at least. if it takes a beating though through constant use significantly less. the needle in a hdd is more likely to fail than the disc itself, in a format it just goes through a smoothe sweeping motion whereas in normal use it flicks back and forth quite rapidly.

 

[Lasha]

I've had this computer since July of 2002, and formatted only once. Everything is running fine, but Windows is becoming a bit screwy. So, formatting will be fine, right?

 

[Nitestick]

yeah. as long as you have a proper windows cd it will be really easy. if you have one of those dodgy manufacturer recovery cd's things might get a bit more complicated.