Why don't HDD manufactureres pre-format drives?

[plankmeister]

Surely it must be possible for the manufacturers to implement a system that pre-formats hard disks? It takes FoReVeR!

 

[mesarectifier]

That would be a stupid idea.

I'd want mine formatted to HFS+. Unless I wanted them formatted to NTFS. Unless I wanted them formatted to HFS. Unless I wanted them formatted to FAT.

Jesus, it only takes PartitionMagic about 15 seconds to format a 250gb SATA drive. Get over it.

 

[mad_fitzy]

Jesus, it only takes PartitionMagic about 15 seconds to format a 250gb SATA drive. Get over it

Seconded

 

[Slobogob]

Have you ever tried ntfs quick format? 8O

 

[ZozZoz]

I think some of them come preformatted, albeit not without problems.

When I got a WD3200KS, i just quick formatted it to NTFS, and it worked, but, as a dynamic disk. Using win XP disk management tool, I removed the volume and partition, but in vain. The option that would allow me to convert it back to basic did not appear. Had to do a raw reformat.

2 MeseRecifier: What version of PM do you use? I had a bad experience with 8.0. In two separate cases I merged partitions, and both times it screwed up, making me lose data.

 

[plankmeister]

That would be a stupid idea.

I'd want mine formatted to HFS+. Unless I wanted them formatted to NTFS. Unless I wanted them formatted to HFS. Unless I wanted them formatted to FAT.

Jesus, it only takes PartitionMagic about 15 seconds to format a 250gb SATA drive. Get over it.

As stupid an idea as pre-formatted floppy disks was...

And which version of PM does that? It really formats the whole disk in 15 seconds? Or just a quick format? Sounds very odd to me...

 

[ZozZoz]

I'm pretty sure he meant a quickformat. There's no way (mechanically/physically) a drive can format itself RAW in a few seconds.

 

[plankmeister]

Exactly... So I'm a bit confused as to why he said it's a stupid idea. Let's say you buy a 250gb hard disk preformatted as NTFS, but you need it formatted as EXT2, well... there's no difference for you, as you'd need to fomat it to EXT2 anyway if it came unformatted.

Surely, this isn't a stupid idea. Use a HDD straight out of the box? Especially the new 1TB drives...

Or am I just being far too idealistic?

 

[AKJ]

Another question about formatting HDDs...

I have a Seagate USB2 HDD http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=780e913643cfd010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD&locale=en-US

These drives come pre-formatted as FAT32. This limits you because you cannot store a single file that is greater than 4GB on it (FAT32 limitation).

Now, is it possible to format it to NTFS? I heard somewhere that the drive will become unusable if i do this...

 

[ZozZoz]

I formatted an external drive a number of times.
Had an old laptop lying around, ripped a 40gb seagate drive out of it, bought an external enclosure (usb 2.0) and now i use it instead of a pendrive. I formatted it using disk management tool in windows, I formatted it using partition magic.

Also, you can convert it to NTFS, instead of formatting. keep all your data.
Not sure of it's gonna work witn an external drive, coz PM does the procedure before logging on to windows. But, there's a way around that too - take the box apart, and inside you will have a standard ide/sata drive. Stick it in your computer, convert to NTFS, then reassemble the enclosure. Voilas.

 

[AKJ]

OK, so i can format/convert it without any problems? So then why do they pre-format these drives to FAT32?

 

[evongugg]

It saves them money not partitioning and formatting your drive. Linuxer's would probably protest if they preforamtted the drive with a Windows protocol, etc.
To avoid controversy I guess they leave it up to the consumer.
Most consumers would be happy without having to go through the process and have it preformatted with NTFS.

 

[I]

The poll itself is evidence enough that your idea has limited merit. There is no one filesystem everyone uses and it would be a bit selfish to think they should pre-format to whatever you in particular want to use (which is what I suspect started this whole daydream post).

Remember something - there is a reason it takes awhile to format, anyone who could just wish it away with a quick format that didn't check the drive would be askingn for trouble - it is quite prudent to check a medium (at the very least) one time before relying on it for data storage.

 

[ZozZoz]

who knows, maybe you'll want to install windows 98/95 on it. XP/NT/2000 will work on NTFS, but 95/98 will not. maximizing compatibility from the start I suppose.

 

[AKJ]

OK, but with regards to my situation, this is a sealed unit from seagate. ie: You cannot remove this drive from its casing.. And since its USB2, you also cannot install any OS on it.

All i want to know is whether its ok to format this drive to NTFS.. It will always be used as a USB2 drive.

 

[ZozZoz]

Go ahead and format, with no fear.

As for "sealed unit" - everything can be unsealed. Inside you always find a usb 2.0 interface, with a short strip of an IDE cable coming out of it and going directly into the drive (as well as a standard molex connector . It's not like the USB interface is soldered to the back of the drive, just so you know.

 

[plankmeister]

I can't understand the hostility... What a bizarre subject to get hostile about!

The argument about which file system to preformat it with is moot. It should obviously be NTFS as most people run an M$ O/S.

Some have said that they wouldn't want NTFS on it, but another file system instead, as they don't use NTFS.

OK... let me explain a similar situation. 90% of new apartment buyers are happy with their new apartment and its default "egg-shell white" walls. The remaining 10% are not happy, so they paint the walls purple or green or whatever. If the walls were unpainted to start with, what have the 10% minority lost? They still have to paint. And in this scenario, so do the other 90%. It's a big benefit for those 90%. Surely you can't argue with that.

 

[AKJ]

LOL, the casing doesnt have any screws, instead it has rivets.. So the only way you can open it is to actually break the drive casing..

Do you know how to do the FAT32 to NTFS conversion? I know you can do it via command line..

 

[ZozZoz]

just type convert /? in the command prompt, and it'll give you directions on how to put together a proper command.

It will look like this:

CONVERT Z: /FS:NTFS /X

where Z is your drive letter.

/X option is to forcefully demount (or is it "unmount' ?) the drive if its being accessed.

 

[AKJ]

Shwweeeet! Thanks a million buddy
Now i wont have any issues with large files anymore.

 

[mitch074]

and many people will want a 25 Gb boot partition and the rest for data, and several will use a small,hidden partition at the end to put a recovery system (OEMs), and several will need the drive to build a new RAID array...

Meaning that the number of people that would want a single, primary partition formatted in NTFS on the drive are actually close to 30% - and that would require the 70% other percent of people to reset the MBR, create a new one and do their own partitions before format.

Yes, NTFS does make creating a new partition table strangely hard to do: I often have to wipe out a disk to reformat it when it's been set up as NTFS only.

As such, and considering how long it gets to format a new hard disk (which you should do anyway, because the initial, full format may bring up problems) on a modern system (I won't mention 16-bit, real-mode disk DOS access), I'd say you're whining about the wrong thing. The correct question would be, 'why are HDs not thoroughly tested before they get out of assembly?' or better, 'why is M$ making people reliant on a file system which is impossible to read on something other than their own systems?'

Not to mention that a NTFS drive may not be read by all Windows systems: NTFS has changed since it started, and I personally found several snags and performance degradations using a NT4 partition on a XP system; I had to wipe the whole drive blank, repartition and reformat it.

I'll stick to ext3.

 

[raytracer06]

Even if everyome was using the same filesystem... Maybe you don't want a single partition for the whole drive.

Manufacturers would have to make further variants of each disc... imagine the mess if we push this idea to the extremes :
"- I want a 320GB SATA drive with 4 partitions : 20GB FAT32, 200GB NTFS, 95GB EXT3, and 5GB Linux swap... It's for multiboot.
- I don't have it anymore, but I have a 320 GB sata with 20GB FAT32, 150GB NTFS, etc..."

So... I don't think pre-formatting is a good idea...
and formatting is not so long, unless you really need a full format.

asking for pre-formatted drives is like asking for the driver's seat, the mirrors, and the wheel to be already set when you buy a new car.

 

[plankmeister]

That's where software like Partition Magic comes in. If it's already partitioned and formatted, PM lets you alter virtually every aspect of the partitioning without the need to completely reformat.

If I bought a 750GB NTFS pre-formatted HDD, I'd also want to repartition it. Using PM, I just resize the existing, and add another. It's already formatted. It'd take a couple of minutes and I'd be ready to go.

Ok... so there are people who use other file systems... But look at the poll result. Not many...

 

[PCcashCow]

Ok... so there are people who use other file systems... But look at the poll result. Not many...

My God, how scientific! Why isn't this research published?

 

[plankmeister]

Well, I guess in the world you live in, 50% of people use something other than NTFS? Hmmm.... Well, I just found this:

"According to market researcher OneStat.com, Windows now controls 97.46 percent of the global desktop operating system market, compared to just 1.43 percent for Apple Macintosh and 0.26 percent for Linux. OneStat.com says its figures are derived from real-time global Web site analysis, and are an average of the past two months."

I agree that other people use other systems, and they are more than likely to be enthusiasts so are more likely to buy extra HDDs... But there are far more NTFS users. I know about, oh, I dunno, 50 people who own a computer. 2 of them run Linux and one has a Mac (well, he has 2 Macs). The rest are mostly running XP, with a few 2K/98 systems. (Even a Windows 3.1!!)

So I don't need to scrutinize the figures scientifically... It's pretty obvious.

Another reason so many people on this particular site are so hostile to the idea is that most are enthusiasts who use other systems. If I were to ask an average computer user if they'd want their new HDD pre-formatted or not, they'd probably look at me like this: :?