Is there a correct way to format a harddrive?

egil87

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Got a SSD which I am going to format. Its a Corsair GT 120gb. Im installing windows 7 on it. I am also going to format my storage HDD, its a seagate barracuda 2tb 5900rpm.

So, are there any special ways to go about formating?

I usually just pop in the windows cd, boot it and format in the windows installer, but i would not mind being a little more thorough. It'll be my third time formating the SSD now.


Thanks for answering!
 

danraies

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Having the windows installer format the drive is the proper choice when installing Windows.

To format a drive after windows is installed you just go to my computer, right click on the drive, and then click "format." A screen comes up with some options. You should name it whatever you want, but the only other option you need to worry about is the "quick format" option. For brand new HDD's that are being formatted for the very first time you should not quick format (that is you should do a full format), but every other time you format a drive you'll want to quick format. SSD's should never be quick formatted.

I think when you format with the window's installer there is a quick format option, too, so make sure you do that with your SSD.
 

danraies

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That's fine - it doesn't hurt with HDD's, but full formatting is bad for SSD's. A full format checks the disk for bad sectors, but SSD's don't get bad sectors so it doesn't help at all and a full format is actually bad for SSD's.
 

egil87

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Oh I see. When I install windows, does the installer search for bad sectors? Does it do a full format on the ssd?
 

danraies

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Don't ever defrag. Defragmentation moves data around on the platters to help improve response time and the amount the drive has to spin. Since SSD's don't spin they don't need to be defragmented and again, defrag is bad for the drive. Also don't run too many benchmarks. It's not great for the drive and if you run two back to back the second one will not be accurate anyway.

I don't know why the site you linked says not to tweak the OS right after you install. There are tweaks you can do to get the best performance out of your SSD. Tom's has a good guide that gathers a lot of useful SSD info:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/270102-32-useful-articles-part