What to do after low-level formatting. A selection of programs for restoring, formatting and testing flash drives. Why do you need low-level formatting of a hard drive?

Formatting hard drive – software process applying marks to elements of the magnetic plate memory area and creating a new file structure of the media. Without labels and file system structure HDD is a useless device, recording information on which cannot be done due to physical and software features processes of recording, storing and reading information.

Physically during hard formatting nothing happens to the disk, but on program level it is organized on the media logical structure – a certain order, necessary for recording, storing, editing and deleting data. Otherwise, the logical structure of the disk is called a file system. Depending on the selected file system, the speed of access to information, maximum length file name, number of files in one directory, storage efficiency, search methods, recording information, etc. will vary.

Formatting a hard drive is divided into two types. These are low-level and high-level formatting.

Low-level formatting is a process by which special electronic marks called servo marks are applied to the magnetic surface of the polished platters of your HDD. They contain service information about the positioning of the read heads and the position of sectors and tracks of the disk, which determine the physical format of the drive. This procedure is performed on special factory equipment, since before this the media does not contain any information about the sectors and tracks of the plate(s), due to the absence of which, working with the media is impossible. Due to the coefficient of volumetric expansion of materials (which is known to many school lessons physics), from which HDD platters were made in the past and stepper motors that controlled the positioning of the heads, sectors and tracks were shifted relative to the read heads. Thus, when, according to the controller, the head was in the desired sector, it could physically be on the adjacent track. Because of this, the hard drive malfunctioned and bad (inoperative) sectors appeared (if the controller thinks that the head is in the first sector, but in reality it is positioned, for example, above the 5th, then the first four sectors are inaccessible to it). Such hard drives required repeated low-level formatting throughout their entire service life, which required the complete and repeated destruction of all data on the hard disk platter(s).

IN new HDDs this problem was solved by using a voice coil in the read head mechanism, due to which the influence of thermal expansion was compensated by recalibrating the operating parameters of the disk heads (to put it simply, everything was solved at the software level by simple redirection).

Low-level formatting is necessary to solve several problems and is performed in such cases:

at the manufacturing facility to create the physical structure of the manufactured hard drive before testing and delivery to the end user;
on old ones hard drives to reset the file system (due to the coefficient of linear expansion of materials when heated during long-term operation of the HDD, the head moves slightly in relation to the formed grid of tracks and sectors);
complete, reliable and irrevocable erasure of all information stored on the hard drive, for example, before sale own computer or the hard drive itself.

High-level HDD formatting - the process of creating a file hard structure disk, which consists of creating the main boot entry, file table, file system structure and, depending on the formatting option, checking the surface of the hard drive platters for the presence of damaged sectors and then replacing or deactivating them. As a consequence high level formatting The hard drive is prepared for use by the operating system to store data on it.

High-level formatting is divided into two types: quick and full. During the fast process, the file table is updated, which stores file names and paths to them, attributes, etc. After this, its new structure is formed, and a master boot record of the disk or its logical partition is created. Upon completion of the process, the operating system will recognize the hard or logical drive as clean, although physically all the information on it will remain intact, with the exception of the file table - all data in it will be marked as non-existent and will be overwritten with new bits of information during operation.

Full formatting is a procedure for clearing the file table, as during quick formatting, but with the subsequent rewriting of each sector with zero bits of information. Also, during full formatting, all sectors of the hard drive will be checked for functionality. If a bad sector is detected, it will be replaced with a functional one that is in reserve, or simply excluded, as a result of which the usable volume of the HDD will slightly decrease.

High-level formatting of hard drives and their partitions must be performed in the following cases:

during reinstallation of the operating system to reset all data located on them and form a new disk structure;
when dividing the drive into logical drives;
for high-quality checking of magnetic plates for the presence of damaged sectors;
immediately after low-level formatting to form the file structure of the disk by the manufacturer or user (mandatory procedure);
deleting all information on the hard drive.

2. Formatting a non-system hard drive

Any operating system of the Windows family is located on a disk or its partition, which is designated as system. It contains the master boot record and system Windows files, thanks to which the interaction of the software with the hardware is carried out. There may be several such partitions, but, as a rule, the user has one operating system installed, which implies the presence of a single system partition. All other sections and connected to hard on the computer disks are not system disks. The second and subsequent hard drives are non-system, so the procedure for formatting them is no different from formatting removable USB drives.

Let's consider methods for forming the file structure of non-system hard drives using tools built into the operating system and with the help of third-party software products, designed to work with hard drives.

2.1. Formatting using BIOS

One way to format a hard drive is to use a bootable USB flash drive or CD with an installation distribution of the Windows operating system, the so-called LiveCD or bootable media with one of the programs for formatting storage media. There are versions of programs, such as AcronisDiskDirector, that can boot directly from a flash drive, which means they work without an operating system. In recent Acronis versions We have a bootable media creation wizard. Such a flash drive will allow the AcronisDiskDirector program to boot from the BIOS and format the hard drive.

In addition to third-party programs, formatting a hard drive with BIOS can be done by booting from the installation disk with the Windows distribution using the command line or the operating system installer. All these options will be discussed in more detail below.

2.2. Formatting using Windows

The Windows operating system contains everything necessary for hard formatting disk tools. In this section, we will consider all the methods to format a hard drive using the tools provided by the Windows operating system.

2.2.1. Through properties

The simplest way to prepare a hard drive for work is to clean it from unnecessary information and form new system, is formatting via the context menu.

2.2.2. Through “Creating and formatting hard disk partitions”

The second method to format a hard drive using the Windows operating system toolkit is the Disk Management snap-in located in system console"Computer Management".

"Disk Management" - system Windows service, designed to manage flash drives, hard drives and their partitions. This program allows you to format hard drives connected to your computer in one of three file systems and create new partitions on them. Almost all actions are performed without rebooting the operating system, which will not distract the user from his main work.

You can start Disk Management using one of the following methods.

Via the Start menu

Via "My Computer"

Via "Control Panel"

We have launched the Computer Management service. Next, you need to go to its subsection called “Disk Management”, which, in turn, is located in the “Storage Devices” section.

During formatting, you will not see any windows with the progress of the operation, except for the inscription “Formatting” in the “Status” line (see screenshot).

Our hard drive is formatted in the selected file system and is ready for further use. You will be notified about this dialog box and system signal.

2.2.3. Command line

In addition to formatting hard drives via graphical interfaces, the operating system, since the days of the console MS-DOS, allows the formation of a new file system of the hard drive with the deletion of all files and, with full formatting, checking its surface for integrity, through the use system commands entered into the command console, also called command interpreter Windows.

The command line allows the user to interact with the computer directly, without any intermediary in the form of an outsider software. It is a window for entering understandable operating system text commands with many parameters for direct control of the operating system or computer hardware. Naturally, using the command line you can quickly format your hard drive. To do this, launch the system console using any of the listed methods or a more convenient method for you.

Through the Run window

Via the Start menu

Using Windows Explorer

The command line is launched by calling the file “cmd.exe” located in the “System32” folder of the system directory of the Windows operating system. To launch the command line, you can go to c:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe or use the shortcut to launch the command interpreter.

Having launched the command line, we will see a black window on the screen where you can enter text commands, understandable for the Windows operating system, starting from its first versions.

If you did not enter a label, the operating system will ask you to enter it before formatting or leave the hard drive without a name by pressing “Enter” (see screenshot).

The process of formatting a hard drive, depending on specified parameters and storage capacity, can last from several seconds to several tens of minutes. Formatting is accompanied by the inscription: “Creating file system structures.”

At the end of the process, the console window will display the message: “Format completed” and the results of the operation will appear.

Now our hard drive is formatted using the system console and is ready for further use.

2.3 Formatting a disk using the HDD Low Level Format Tool

Utility HDD Low Level Format Tool or HDDLLFT for short, is designed for low-level formatting of hard drives and digital storage media based on memory chips. It copes with the task perfectly even in cases where the magnetic surface of the plate is severely damaged.

Carrying out the procedure for formatting a hard drive through the utility does not require any special user knowledge.

Please note that in free HDD versions Low Level Format Tool formatting speed is limited to 50 Mb/s, which with significant volumes of modern hard drives during a full format with checking the drive for bad sectors may result in several hours of work. The second drawback of the program is the inability to specify the cluster size.

3. Formatting the system hard drive

A system hard drive is, as a rule, a high-speed (with a platter rotation speed of 10,000 rpm, although it can be with a standard 7200 rpm) hard drive on which the operating system is installed. Based on this, format it using Windows will not work. Formatting systemic hard The process of rebuilding a disk is carried out using a different method, the essence of which is no different from the formation of a new file system of a regular hard drive. The only difference is that the utility to create a new file system will have to be launched from installation disk or flash drives.

3.1. Formatting using a bootable USB flash drive or disk

3.1.1. Through the Windows operating system installer

One of the most common methods to format a hard drive used as a system drive is to use removable media or a CD and a Windows OS installation distribution.

We will not consider how to create bootable media; many articles have been written on this subject on the Russian-language segment of the Internet. Let's get straight to the point.

We insert bootable USB flash drive into the USB socket of your computer or laptop (or a CD into its drive).
Reboot or turn on the computer.

Immediately after downloading basic system input-output and carrying out initialization and testing of equipment, we begin to click on the button quick selection bootable media.

This key can be "F9" or "F11" (see manual instructions before your motherboard or laptop), this data is also displayed during BIOS boot.

We select our media as the device to which control of the system will be transferred (in our case, it is a 4 GB USB flash drive for booting from UEFI).

When a similar black screen with an inscription appears, press any button on the keyboard.

Information will be read from the bootloader program to which the BIOS has transferred control.

Depending on the Windows builds, select the operating system installation option (with a different boot loader interface, using third party builds, the essence of the process will remain unchanged).
Select the installation language. Naturally, it will be Russian, as will the keyboard layout, time format, etc.

In the next window, simply click “Install ->”.

We accept the terms of use of the operating system, preferably after reading them.

We stop at the second option so that we can get into the hard drive settings menu.

Click “Full installation...”.

Using the keyboard and mouse, select the required hard drive if there are several of them connected to the computer, and click “Disk Setup”.

The toolbar will change slightly.

Click on the “Format” button.

will appear standard window with a warning that all files and programs on the disk will be destroyed.

Click “Ok” to confirm your intentions.

After clearing the table of contents, the hard drive will be formatted and ready to install the operating system.

This method is reasonable to use in cases where the Windows operating system cannot format the hard drive, for example, because it is used by some application or is a system partition.

3.1.2. Formatting the system hard drive via the command line by booting from the installation disk/flash drive

Another simple option to format the disk on which the operating system is located is to use the command line, booting from a disk or flash drive with installation files Windows operating system.

3.2. Acronis Disk Director

To launch the bootable media creation wizard, go to the “Backup and Restore” tab on the program control panel, which is designed in a ribbon style, like Microsoft Office, starting with the 2007 edition.
Click on the “Create bootable media” item.
Depending on the version of the program, a window may appear asking you to select the type of boot media. It is recommended to select the bootloader option on Windows based P.E. Click “Next”.

Choose necessary components, on the basis of which the wizard will create a bootable USB flash drive.

Enough to format your hard drive Acronis programs DiskDirector. If you want to have a tool for creating backup copies of partitions, also select AcronisTrueImage.

Select the type of Acronis bootable media to be created.
Then we confirm our intentions to write the program files to the flash drive, having first destroyed all the files on it, and wait for the end of the writing process.
We boot from the created drive.

To do this, restart the computer and select our flash drive as boot media. This is done by changing the priority in the list of boot devices (“Boot” menu item) in your BIOS or hotkey selecting boot devices.

In most cases, during the initialization procedure, which occurs before loading the operating system, you must press the F11, F9 or other key to bring up the boot menu. In it, select the USB drive and click “Enter”.
We are waiting for the program to load.

Typically, this procedure lasts a little longer than downloading the Acronis program Disk Director on Windows.
We select our hard drive and call the formatting procedure using any method:
In the dialog box that appears, select the hard drive formatting options:
- file system – it is recommended to use NTFS, due to support for files larger than 4 GB, which is not available for FAT and FAT32;
- Leave the cluster size at “Auto” if you have no idea what this value is. However, to store a huge number of small files, it is recommended to select a cluster size of less than 4 KB;
- volume label – enter the name of the hard drive or leave the field blank.

Having set all the parameters, we turn our attention to the toolbar located at the top of the screen. Click on the button called “Apply pending operations (1)”.

After loading the list of operations for a short time, a small window will appear with their detailed description and parameters.

If you are confident in the actions you are performing, we check the correctness specified parameters and click on the “Continue” button.

After a few seconds of fixing the operation, the hard drive formatting procedure will start.

Be careful, the program will not display a warning window asking you to confirm the operation and will not notify you that all data on the hard drive has been destroyed.

Formatting will occur within a few seconds, since the utility uses a quick formatting algorithm. At the end of the procedure, the window will close automatically, and the hard drive with a cleared file table and a new file system will be ready for further use.

3.3. Paragon Partition Manager

Paragon Partition Manager is the most powerful free software product for working with hard drives. Naturally, you can use it to format any hard drive or partition. In addition, the utility can work with backup copies, change and create logical partitions, install multiple operating systems on a disk, etc.

Load the LiveCD or installation distribution of the Windows operating system, which includes the Paragon Partition Manager program.
We write the image to removable media and boot from it, specifying the most in the BIOS high priority booting from a flash drive or selecting the drive with the Paragon Partition Manager distribution as the boot device.
We select our program using the mouse cursor or cursor keys and the “Enter” button, depending on the graphical menu and the bootloader used to create the LiveCD.
The main menu of the utility will appear, where we select “Partition Manager” in the list on the left, and then in its right frame.
In the next window, in the list of your hard drives, select the one you want to format.

This can be done both in the “Disk Panel” tab and in the lower frame called “Partition List”.
Call the context menu magnetic storage and select the “Format” command in it, which is located in one of the first places.
We indicate file system and a new hard drive label.
Click " Extra options"if you want to change the number of sectors in one cluster. Also here you can specify whether to perform formatting using the built-in Windows commands“format”, which we became familiar with while formatting a disk with command console, or use the developers' own algorithm.
Click "Format".

The program will not ask for confirmation of the operation, but it will not start executing the command specified to it.

To do this, click on the “Apply intended changes” button, which is located in the toolbar under the main menu.

To view planned changes, use the magnifying glass button.
In the dialogue, we agree to make changes by clicking “Yes”.
We are waiting for a notification that the program has completed its operation.

The same is done through the main menu of the program.

4. Possible errors and ways to solve them

One of the many problems that users face when formatting a hard drive is the use of outdated software. This happens because the user has not updated the disk management program that he trusts for several years. Also, using queries like “download hacked acronis” often leads to the most popular sites, which have been in first place for many months search engines and contain outdated software versions.

Make sure your hard drive software is up to date, especially if you are using one of the latest versions Windows.

The second problem is an error when trying to format the disk being used, especially when it comes to system partitions. Also, some application can use the hard drive or its partition, even in read mode, while the user is trying to format it. The way out of the situation would be to use Bootable LiveCDs or media with Windows distribution.

Error in the process of formatting the hard drive due to a huge amount bad sectors occurs when trying to execute full formatting hard drive, the surface of which is replete with damaged memory cells. Run a HDD scan, for example, with the Victoria utility, with reassignment of damaged areas or their exclusion from the area used for storing information.

All new hard drives are already low-level formatted by the manufacturer and do not require reinitialization. In practice, under normal circumstances, you are unlikely to need to perform low-level formatting on your hard drive, since technically only the manufacturer can perform this kind of real formatting.

What computers call low-level formatting is actually more of an initialization and testing of the disk surface, as the process writes and reads to all sectors of the disk. If there are no problems with the disk, there is no need for a full initialization or surface check.

What is low level formatting?

First, let's understand the concepts of low- and high-level formatting.

Low level format- an operation during which servo marks (information that is used to position the hard drive heads) are applied to the magnetic surface of the disk. It is performed during the manufacturing process of the hard drive, using special equipment.

When the process of low-level formatting a hard drive is started for the first time, the hard drive platters are empty, that is, they contain absolutely no information about sectors, tracks, and so on. This is the last moment when the hard drive has completely empty platters. Information recorded during this process will never be rewritten again.

Old hard disks had the same number of sectors per track and did not have built-in controllers, so the low-level formatting was handled by the external hard drive controller, and the only information it needed was the number of tracks and the number of sectors per track. Using this information, the external controller could format the hard drive. Modern hard drives have a complex internal structure, including changing the number of sectors per track when moving from external to internal tracks, as well as built-in servo information to control the head drive.

Due to this complex data structure, all modern hard drives are low-level formatted only once - at the factory.

There are two types of high-level formatting:

Formatting in normal mode – a process that consists of creating a master boot record with a table of partitions and (or) empty file system structures, setting the boot sector, and similar actions. The formatting process also checks the integrity of the media to block bad sectors.

Quick format - the same process as formatting in normal mode, only without checking the media for bad sectors.

The use of the term low-level formatting in relation to hard drives has given rise to many myths. For example, there is an opinion that it is impossible to perform low-level formatting of a hard drive and that attempting such an operation will lead to the destruction of the disk. In principle, there is some truth in this misconception. It consists in the fact that when low-level formatting old disks from the late 1980s, the optimal setting bevel of heads and cylinders, installed by the disk manufacturer, as well as a map of disk defects.

All this had a negative impact on the performance of the devices. The problem described has long been resolved, and all devices using zone recording (with a variable number of sectors per track) are immune to any problems that low-level formatting may cause, since real markers cannot be replaced by a sector.

So low-level formatting of discs made in the 1990s and later will prevent it from disturbing its settings.

At the same time, there is often a real need to perform low-level formatting of ATA and SCSI drives. Now we will talk about programs that will help you do this.

Programs for low-level formatting of ATA disks (SATA, PATA, etc.)

ATA drive manufacturers defined and standardized extensions to the original WD1002/1003 hard drive controller, creating the AT bus interface (known as the ATA interface). The ATA specification is implemented for unique vendor-specific commands that are an extension of the standard. To avoid performing incorrect low-level formatting, many ATA devices have special teams, which must be sent to the device to unlock formatting procedures. These commands vary by device manufacturer, so you'll need to look for low-level formatting and defect management programs created by the drive manufacturer.

These programs are most often intended not only for devices from a specific manufacturer, but also for their individual models. So before performing a search, write down the manufacturer's name and number models of hard disk.

Modern hard drives are protected from the possibility of changes in the skew factor or defect map, since they are always in conversion mode. Devices with zone recording are always in this mode and are thus fully protected.

Most hard drives have additional set commands that are used during the formatting process, while standard commands ATA specifications do not work (especially for ATA devices with zone recording).

Spare sectors can also be allocated automatically using programs provided by the device manufacturer. Without knowing the correct manufacturer-specific commands, it is impossible to replace defective sectors with spare ones specially allocated in modern devices for these purposes. A detected defective sector is replaced in the distribution structure by the closest spare sector.

Some hard drive manufacturers offer formatting programs low level. They can be found at the following addresses.

Seagate
ftp://ftp.seagate.com/techsuppt/seagate_utils/sgatfmt4.zip
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools
Hitachi/IBM
www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
Maxtor/Quantum
http://www.maxtor.com/softwaredownload/default.htm
Samsung
www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/hutil.htm
www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/sutil.htm
www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/shdiag.htm
Western Digital
http://support.wdc.com/download/

First of all, you should try the programs provided by the device manufacturer. All of them are free and often allow you to work at a low level in a way that large-scale programs do not allow.

If the drive manufacturer does not offer an initialization/verification/formatting program, you can use the Drive Fitness Test program from Hitachi (formerly IBM). This program copes well with discs from other manufacturers and performs detailed full testing the entire hard drive. This is one of the best programs general purpose, because it allows you to perform a non-destructive test. Although it can test any device, there is one limitation: destructive read/write tests can only be performed on Hitachi drives and IBM.

Advice!

All listed programs initialization, testing and formatting of the hard drive, as well as many others, can be found in the Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) collection of utilities. This is a fantastic collection of diagnostic tools contained in one downloadable CD! A copy of this CD can be downloaded from www.ultimatebootcd.com.

Non-destructive formatting tools

I strongly advise against using BIOS-level non-destructive formatting tools such as Calibrate (formerly included with Symantec Norton Utilities) when low-level formatting is truly needed. For such funds it is typical whole line restrictions and problems that reduce their effectiveness. They perform low level formatting on individual tracks using BIOS functions; at the same time it is carried out backup and restoration of individual tracks.

These programs also do not create a defect map, as low-level formatting programs typically do. Moreover, they can remove defect map markers added by standard low-level formatting programs. As a result it becomes possible preservation data in bad sectors, which in some cases may void the warranty.

Another limitation is that these programs can only be used with hard drives that have been previously formatted using BIOS functions.

A low-level format program created by drive manufacturers bypasses the system BIOS and passes commands directly to the controller. Therefore many similar programs designed to work with certain controllers. Having one such program that could be used when working with different controllers is almost impossible to imagine. Many hard drives may be incorrectly identified as defective simply because the wrong program was used.

Low-level formatting of Western Digital HDD and SSDs

I’ll say right away that in in this case, low-level formatting means testing the disk surface for bad sectors through reading and writing. As mentioned above, factory low-level formatting modern hard The disc can only be produced by the manufacturer.

Tough and solid state drives can be formatted at a low level using several methods. Let's consider one of them, applicable to PC. Mac computers are not suitable for this example.

To low-level format a hard drive we need:

The hard drive, in this case, is from Western Digital (in this example, the Maxtor drive was tested, and the procedure was successful)
Data Lifeguard Diagnostics Software for Windows

Before the formatting process, connect the device to the computer. This can be done either through the IDE, SATA, USB or Firefire interface. In this case, low-level formatting will be carried out in Windows system, without preload using special boot disks. This is the easiest way to regular user PC.

Once the device is connected:

1. Download the program Windows Data Lifeguard Diagnostics from http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=113&sid=3&lang=en

2. After downloading the application, launch it and follow the installation wizard.

If after installation a dialog box appears with a message stating that the program cannot be started, close it and click the OK button. The program must be launched in a different way.

3. A program shortcut will appear on the desktop, double-click on it.

4. Check the box next to I accept this... and click the Next button.

The program will display all connected drives. Despite the fact that in my example, formatting was carried out on the test Maxtor hard drive, and it was successful, I recommend that you use this program only for Western drives Digital, to avoid possible problems with the carrier. If you have a Seagate hard drive, use a similar program from Seagate.

5. Select the disk that needs to be diagnosed and click on the to run tests button. BE SURE to double-check that you have selected the correct drive, otherwise you will lose all data on this medium, without the possibility of their restoration, since this process is destructive and irreversible.

7. In the next window, select the EXTENDED TEST option and click the Start button.

8. Close all files that are open on the selected hard drive and click the OK button.

9. The testing procedure on a 20 GB hard drive took approximately 10 minutes. At the end of testing, click on the Close button.

10. But that's not all. Now again click on the to run tests button and in the dialog box select the WRITE ZEROS option and click on the Start button. This procedure will overwrite all sectors with zeros.

10. Depending on the condition of the drive, you will receive one or two prompts reminding you that this action will destroy all data in currently on disk. Click the Yes button.

10. Then choose which method you would like to use to write the zeros. The QUICK ERASE option is much faster, but does not completely erase the disk. This is suitable for users who plan to rewrite the disc multiple times. A FULL ERASE erases the disk completely. This takes longer, but ensures that no data on the drive can later be recovered using data recovery methods. This method is designed for people who need to permanently delete data from their drive, such as hackers ;).

Once you have determined which method you would like to use, select the OK button to begin the formatting process. I recommend choosing FULL ERASE.

11. Start of the rewriting process. For example, on rewriting hard a 20 GB disk took me about 10 minutes.

12. After the process is completed, click again on the to run tests button and in the dialog box, select the VIEW TEST RESULT option and click on the Start button.

13. The window will display information about the hard drive and the tests that have passed. To be honest, the information in this report is very sparse.

14. If the process was successful, then formatted at low level hard the disk will not be available in the system. Now it needs to be initialized, partitioned, and formatted at a high level.

14. Open Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Run and enter the command in the window diskmgmt.msc .

15. The Disk Management program will launch and the Initialize Disks window will automatically appear, where you will select required disk. Specify the Master Boot Record parameter and click the OK button.

This completes the low-level formatting process.

A similar process can be used for media on hard drives from other manufacturers. For example, Seagate offers very handy tool for diagnostics.

In conclusion, I will give an example of how it displays Data program Lifeguard Diagnostics bad disk. As an example, a Fujitsu hard drive was taken. The program has determined that the media is faulty, as indicated by SMART STATUS.

Using EXTENDED TEST, the program showed that bad sectors were found on the disk.

The program tried to fix them, but nothing worked.

There may be two reasons for this: firstly, the hard drive and the diagnostic program - different manufacturers, so some commands may not be processed correctly, and secondly, this disk cannot be restored, since it has begun to “crumble,” i.e. physical damage appeared on the surface of his discs; it was already on my inspection table before.

FAT32 (File Allocation Table) is a file system introduced by Microsoft in August 1996 that was designed to improve previous version FAT 16.

Conceptual improvements concern increasing the volume size to 8 TB versus 2 GB in FAT 16 and increasing maximum size file that the file system supports from 2 GB to 4 GB.

What should users do who need to transfer files larger than 4 GB to a flash drive?

Formatting a flash drive:

Low-level formatting of a flash drive

Low-level formatting is used to erase information without the possibility of its recovery .

This approach is important if there was and is confidential data on the flash drive and you need to prevent third parties from accessing it.

Attention! It is important to remember that this procedure should not be abused unless absolutely necessary.

By standard means Windows will not be able to perform low-level formatting, so download and install the shareware HDD utility Low Level Format.

To perform low-level formatting you must:

After creating partitions on a flash drive, a reasonable question arises about deleting them. We use any disk manager that can delete and create partitions. I have a free AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition. Launch AOMEI, select the desired partition on the flash drive right in the main window and press selection in the side or context menu “Delete partition”. After that, click “Apply” in the main menu of the program. The section will be deleted. Similarly, delete the remaining sections.

After deleting the last partition, the flash drive will become inaccessible (not visible) in Windows. It's because everything deleted sections moved into an unmarked area. Select our flash drive in the disk menu, and in the context menu “Create partition”. Next, “Apply” in the main menu of the program. The section will be created. The flash drive will return to its original state and will contain only one partition.

There are two possible solutions to the issue here. If you need to delete some partitions without affecting the files of the rest, we use any disk manager that can delete partitions one by one. If you need to delete all partitions and return the flash drive to its original single-partition state, use the BOOTICE program directly.

High-level full formatting

High-level full media formatting (HMF) is the software process of creating a master boot record (MBR) and partitioning the working space of the storage medium into partitions. At the same time, the boot area of the media is overwritten, the old one is “demolished” and a new partition structure is created, consisting of an empty file system. Again, high-level full formatting refers to hard drives, since only they have file structures consisting of several sections.

Of course not. Nobody forbids creating two, three, or five partitions on a flash drive. The Windows operating system “sees” and agrees to work with only one of them. The rest falls into the category of “buns”.

The process of low-level formatting is that sectors and tracks are applied to the surface of the hard drive. Thus, servo marks are applied to the magnetic surface, which are used to position the disk heads as service information. This process is carried out on special servowriter equipment.

At home, it is almost impossible to carry out full low-level formatting of a hard drive. Therefore, it is generally accepted that such a specific event is carried out once at the manufacturing plant. But to imitate this process at home, there are many different ways, for example, to carry out an operation from under DOS, using installation flash drive or process it with a special program.

But before you look for the most acceptable way that low-level formatting can be done at home, you need to determine the main reasons for doing it:

Prevent leakage of important or classified information. This process completely destroys all information contained on the device, while the usual process deletes data only from the first sector.
Blocking hard drive sectors that were susceptible to damage. Damage can be caused by impacts, mechanical or temperature effects. Information is not saved for damaged areas.

Working with the helper program

In order to make this operation easier, you can download a program called HDD LOW LEVEL FORMAT TOOL. This utility is used not only for formatting hard drives. It also works with various interfaces and can be used to delete information from a flash drive. This program works according to the following scheme:

You need to run the program and check Continue for free in the window that appears.
After this, another window will appear in which there will be a list with all devices.
When the drive is selected, the window will change and information will appear in it. For low-level formatting, you need to select FORMAT THIS.
Now the utility will start the process, but before it it will display a message that will remind the user that the data is irrevocable. To continue, you must agree.
After low-level formatting, you need to do a normal (quick) format through “My Computer” and select the file system type there.

Formatting using the popular Victoria utility

In addition to a narrow specification program, in order to carry out low-level formatting, you can use a utility with a wider range of actions. One of these utilities is Victoria. Victoria's capabilities are quite extensive and one of its abilities is low-level formatting.

You can work with Victoria in several ways, namely, download from a disk, floppy disk, flash drive, or download and install directly on the computer’s hard drive. In order to use the first three methods, you need to create a boot package of files on the drives, which runs on the computer under DOS.

To run Victoria on your existing operating system, you must first download the program from the official website. To install the program on your device, you need to run the file victoria43.exe as administrator.

In the window that opens, several tabs will appear in which the program analyzes all available hard drives. But in order to permanently delete data Victoria program, on the hard drive, first you need to identify the areas that have been damaged. The “Test” tab can help with this. The scan will reveal damaged sectors, and to get rid of them you need to run rescan, but set the mode to Write. IN Victoria utility this mode is responsible for permanent deletion(overwriting) information.

Deleting data via DOS

But in order to format a hard drive at a low level, it is not necessary to use a third-party program with complex controls. This can also be done through DOS - using the installation disk with the operating system.

If you have a boot disk with Windows XP, let's start installing it first. During the installation process, you will be offered all hard drives and their partitions that can be formatted in DOS mode.
When installing a system with boot disk with Vista OS we will wait until the system offers a choice of disk or partition. Then you need to open the “Disk Settings” window.
If there is no need to change the file system and other hdd settings You can click the “Format” button.

When formatting in DOS mode will be completed, the system will notify the user and the computer will need to restart.

Low-level formatting must be approached responsibly so as not to harm the system. It does not matter how exactly the operation will be carried out via DOS, from a flash drive or using a program. In addition, you should remember that such a process completely and irrevocably deletes all information accumulated on the hard drive, so before you begin, you should save a disk image for quick recovery.