What is formatting - question for geeks and advanced computer uesrs

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
hinge

hinge

Honorable
Mar 4, 2012
5
0
10,510
hello

I'd like to ask a question on how HDD work. I couldn't find answers on the internet as my questions are a bit detailed.

1. High Level formating does not destroy all data on a HDD. But the result of the HLF makes the disc do not see any files or data. The disc seams then blank for any OS. What is then removed during HLF (data is left as it was)?

2. If the modern disc has bad sectors the first thing it does is relocating such a sector to a special area. But is it done automatically by S.M.A.R.T. or in other way??

If it is done automatically, will SCANDISK or CHKDSK or anny other searching for boot sectors program will ever find such bad sectors?

3. Does SMART automaticly on its own relocates badsectors to the special area? If so, I don't see the reason to use HDD software for bad sectors? Because if it has been relocated no software will ever find a bad sector. Correct?

thanks in advance
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
misclik

misclik

Honorable
Sep 17, 2012
200
0
10,760
well... I can answer part 1 off the top of my head for you....

a HDD has a small board that comes with it. this board is like a controller or a directory. when you do a high level format (also known as a quick format) it just erases the directory, but the data is still on the disk. if you had the proper software, you could go through it and still get all of the data of of it. a quick format only takes about 5 seconds. A full format actually goes through the disk and writes a 1 or a 0 (or otherwise erases all of the data on the disk) so it is much more difficult to read old data. now, again, with the proper software and hardware,you could still find the data because it scars the hdd a little bit. That is why you need to physically destroy a hdd to completely ensure the data is gone.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
hinge

hinge

Honorable
Mar 4, 2012
5
0
10,510


thanks but as far as I know you can use WDclear do destroy data. Sectors then receive a pattern, say "010101" and so on. After that you can't restore data. That is why you use such software.

You don't need to destroy HDD physically.


2. I am looking forward to having answers to my next questions.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom