how to safely format 1Tb WD passport external hard disk?

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Asung

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Nov 7, 2014
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hello ... i have a 1Tb WD passport external hard disk which became unaccessible after my laptop crashed .... however after much painstaking i was able to recover much of the important files using a 'data recovery tool'. now that it is done, i want to format my hard disk. But on my first attempt i was unable to do so... 'Formatting Fail'. My hard disk have never been partitioned.

In the Disk Management it reads-
Disk1- Basic- 931.48GB - Online
(H:) 931.48GB Healthy(Primary Partition)

It would be of Great relief if u guys will help me out . Thanks
 
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Honestly, either. The write zeroes method is normally used in the case of data-destruction, I.E. your wife found out you have some extra money set aside, the amount is in a notepad saved on your desktop, and you want to make sure, REALLY sure, that she doesn't see it. It also takes a long time to do. In this case you're simply taking a drive that has data on it, removing the data, and starting over. The Disk Management way is sufficient. I would even check the quick format option. Saves you some time.

If you were going to be turning this HDD into a bootable, primary volume it would be wise to take some extra steps, to save future errors. If you're going to be using it to store games, movies, music etc. that you will be accessing on a...
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Asung

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Nov 7, 2014
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Hi ChrisPat,

Thanks for your time and reply.
I wanted to ask which one would be a better Option:
If i should 'Partition and Format the external hard drive with Disk Management', i.e Delete Volume and Create New Partition?
Or
Use Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows, for Low Level Format or Write Zeros (Full Erase)?

Since i don't need any of the data from my hard disk, i would format in which ever way to be able to use the Hard disk again.

Asung

 
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Stingerxxx

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Nov 22, 2014
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Honestly, either. The write zeroes method is normally used in the case of data-destruction, I.E. your wife found out you have some extra money set aside, the amount is in a notepad saved on your desktop, and you want to make sure, REALLY sure, that she doesn't see it. It also takes a long time to do. In this case you're simply taking a drive that has data on it, removing the data, and starting over. The Disk Management way is sufficient. I would even check the quick format option. Saves you some time.

If you were going to be turning this HDD into a bootable, primary volume it would be wise to take some extra steps, to save future errors. If you're going to be using it to store games, movies, music etc. that you will be accessing on a regular basis, it would even be a good idea in that case to not go with a quick format and proceed with the lengthy process. If you're just using it as a backup drive, or a store-and-forget drive however, there's no need to go over and above.

Simply put, any of the methods will work. Make sure you select FAT32 if it's just for storage, NFTS is only required if system files will be used, I.E. if you're booting from it.
 
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