HDD Low Level Format Tool or full hdd formatting. What program exists to format a hard drive? System utilities

They can perform regular or low-level formatting of a hard drive, as well as other external media. To do this, you just need to right-click on the desired object and select the “Format” menu item in the contextual branch.

But what exactly this utility does and what it is capable of in general remains a mystery to many. After checking, if a bad sector was detected on the media, the program will not give you any notification, and it is quite possible that this problematic cluster will continue to be used by the system.

In order to solve this problem, you have to resort to third-party programs for low-level formatting of hard drives and USB devices. Well, with the help of basic applications of the Windows operating system, it is unfortunately impossible to unravel the secret of sectors.

So, we present to your attention the best programs for low-level hard drive formatting that can be found on the Internet. All of them have basically a free or shareware license and are freely distributed through official or specialized resources.

It’s worth noting right away: before performing low-level formatting of your hard drive, be sure to copy all important information to third-party media. Otherwise, you risk losing this data.

JetFlash Recovery Tool

This program for low-level formatting of hard drives will be an excellent help not only for working with a hard drive, but also with branded flash drives of this company, as well as ADATA brand devices.

The utility allows you to format media efficiently or recover data from it. The application will be especially useful if you have unreadable sectors, recording is completely disabled, or the disk is not recognized by the system.

Separately, it is worth mentioning the most simplified interface. Here you won’t see confusing menu branches or unclear icons, everything is very simple. There are two buttons: one to start the data recovery procedure, and the other to “Exit”.

The fly in the ointment here is the fastidiousness of the software. That is, on the one hand, this is an excellent program for low-level formatting of hard drives, but on the other hand, we see only a narrow list of supported equipment. The lack of localization is difficult to write down as a minus, because even without the Russian language everything is extremely clear.

HP Drive Key Boot Utility

Another smart program for low-level formatting hard drives and working with damaged sectors. In addition, the utility perfectly “digests” the brands of flash drives “Kingston”, “SanDisk” and “Transcend”.

The application works smoothly in file systems such as FAT32, NTFS and regular FAT. That is, any storage capacity will be within the capabilities of this program. One of the main advantages of the application is its intuitive interface. All the main functionality of the program is concentrated in one single window, and you can perform all operations without leaving it. By clicking just a couple of buttons, in a few minutes you will see the message: “Low-level disk formatting is complete.”

Distinctive features of the program

It would also be useful to note the fact that this software can create bootable disks using built-in tools based on a copy of your operating system. The application itself comes in a portable version, so there will be no problems with migration to other media and PCs.

The disadvantages of the utility include mediocre support for the currently popular SSD format, but in all other respects it is an excellent program for working with drives.

HDD Low Level Format Tool

This is a highly specialized utility, designed specifically for working with media in such a “deep” way. HDD Low Level Format Tool is an excellent program for low-level formatting Seagate, WD hard drives and almost any flash drive.

Before starting the procedure, you must select the desired media and then designate a work plan. That is, here you can perform a quick cleanup of the hard drive or complete low-level formatting of the hard drive.

One of the distinctive features of the program is its support for all types of hard drives, both regular HDDs and high-speed SSDs, and from any interface (IDE, SATA, SCSI, etc.). The software also copes well with small flash devices like mini- or micro-SD. Thanks to its universal code, the utility works on all known operating systems, including Windows.

The only fly in the ointment is the low data processing speed. That is, for example, this low-level formatting program for a WD hard drive will be able to process this brand of hard drive at a speed of no more than 50 Mbit/sec. The time it takes to complete the operation will be significant, but it is more than compensated for by competent processing of sectors and tracks.

MiniTool Partition Home Edition

This is for the most part a whole complex, distinguished by expanded functionality and appropriate usability. As for specific possibilities, here they are almost limitless for hard drives.

In addition to basic markup operations, error checking, partition conversion and other things, there is a unique functionality unique to this software. We are talking about transferring an operating system from one medium to another, selectively or completely copying information to another hard drive; in addition, judging by the reviews, this is a smart wizard for recovering lost data.

Also, the software can easily work not only with single hard drives, but also with large RAID arrays. Separately, it is worth mentioning the speed of the application, where MiniTool Partition Wizard Free compares favorably with its counterparts.

Software features

All operations can be performed using either the usual visual panel or the graphical menu. The developer, alas, did not provide official localization into Russian, but on the Internet you can find quite competent localizations that are in no way inferior in quality to stock ones.

As for compatibility and any updates, the developer carefully monitors his product, so the application can be called completely universal, and users did not notice any failures or glitches with it.

Overall, this is a worthy product that should be in the arsenal of any system administrator or advanced user. Some may be upset by the paid distribution license, but for isolated cases there is a conditional free period, where for a 30-day period you can use all the features of the program, which should be enough to troubleshoot problems with the drive.

Disk Storage Format Tool

This is a fairly powerful and full-featured utility for working with hard drives and flash drives of all brands and types. In addition, the program is distributed completely free of charge. There is also an advanced paid version, but it differs from the basic version more in its exterior than in any critical additions in functionality.

The software feels great on the Windows platform of all versions - from XP to ten, and no compatibility problems were noticed.

The utility is very easy to use, and the interface is intuitive even for a novice user. To get started, you need to specify the drive you want to work with, then go to the action menu, where you need to select what exactly you want to do for the drive, that is, format or fix errors.

Features of the utility

The program competently approaches the detection of bad or unreadable sectors and their subsequent correction. A separate button works with USB flash drives, where error correction or low-level formatting of the media is also available.

Another advantage for which advanced users love this utility is the maintenance of detailed logs. All operations with a hard drive or flash drive will be reflected in a well-written report, where every step taken by the program is visible.

It is also worth mentioning the trouble-free operation with other, more finicky media: mini- and micro-SD cards, SDXC and HC formats, as well as the rare Compact Flash. The disadvantages include the lack of functionality for creating bootable disks and clumsy localization. But taking into account the existing functionality of the software and the free license, all these shortcomings are practically leveled out.

As various statistics show, not all users know how to perform the specified action. The biggest problems arise if you need to format the C drive in Windows 7, 8 or Windows 10, i.e. system hard drive.

Formatting a non-system hard drive or partition in Windows

In order to format a disk or its logical partition in Windows 7, 8 or Windows 10 (relatively speaking, drive D), just open Explorer (or “My Computer”), right-click on the disk and select “Format”.

After this, simply specify, if desired, the volume label, the file system (although it is better to leave NTFS here) and the formatting method (it makes sense to leave “Quick Format”). Click "Start" and wait until the disk is completely formatted. Sometimes, if the hard drive is large enough, this may take a long time and you may even think that the computer has frozen. There is a 95% chance that this is not the case, just wait.

Another way to format a non-system hard drive is to use the format command in a Command Prompt running as an administrator. In general, a command that quickly formats a disk in NTFS will look like this:

Format /FS:NTFS D: /q

Where D: is the drive letter of the drive being formatted.

How to format C drive in Windows 7, 8 and Windows 10

In general, this guide is also suitable for previous versions of Windows. So, if you try to format the system hard drive in Windows 7 or 8, you will see a message that:

• You cannot format this volume. It contains the version of the Windows operating system currently in use. Formatting this volume may cause your computer to stop working. (Windows 8 and 8.1)
• This disk is in use. The disk is in use by another program or process. Format it? And after clicking “Yes”, the message “Windows cannot format this disk. Quit any other programs that are using the drive, make sure no windows are displaying its contents, and then try again.

What is happening is easily explained - Windows cannot format the disk on which it itself is located. Moreover, even if the operating system is installed on drive D or any other, the first partition (i.e., drive C) will still contain the files necessary to load the operating system, since when you turn on the computer, the BIOS will first start loading from there.

Some notes

Thus, when formatting drive C, you should remember that this action implies the subsequent installation of Windows (or another OS) or, if Windows is installed on another partition, the OS boot configuration after formatting, which is not the most trivial task and, if you are not too If you're an experienced user (and apparently you are, since you're here), I wouldn't recommend trying this.

Formatting

If you are confident in what you are doing, then continue. In order to format drive C or the Windows system partition, you will need to boot from some other media:

• , boot disk.
• Any other bootable media - LiveCD, Hiren’s Boot CD, Bart PE and others.

There are also special solutions such as Acronis Disk Director, Paragon Partition Magic or Manager and others. But we will not consider them: firstly, these products are paid, and secondly, for the purposes of simple formatting they are unnecessary.

Formatting using a bootable USB flash drive or disk Windows 7 and 8

In order to format the system disk using this method, boot from the appropriate installation media and select “Full installation” when selecting the installation type. The next thing you will see is the selection of the partition for installation.

Another way is to press Shift + F10 at any time during installation, the command line will open. From which you can also format (how to do this was written above). Here you need to take into account that in the installation program the drive letter C may be different; in order to find it out, first use the command:

Wmic logicaldisk get deviceid, volumename, description

And, to clarify whether something was mixed up, use the DIR D: command, where D: is the drive letter. (Using this command you will see the contents of the folders on the disk).

After this, you can already apply format to the desired section.

How to format a drive using LiveCD

Formatting a hard drive using various types of LiveCD is not much different from simply formatting it in Windows. Since when booting from a LiveCD, all the really necessary data is located in the computer’s RAM, you can use various BartPE options to format the system hard drive simply through Explorer. And, just like in the options already described, use the format command on the command line.

There are other formatting nuances, but I will describe them in one of the following articles. And in order for a novice user to know how to format the C drive, this article, I think, will be enough. If anything, ask questions in the comments.

Situations when an unreadable RAW format appears on a computer or laptop instead of a regular partition are very unpleasant for the user. And many simply do not know what to do to bring the disk to normal condition, since the system initially does not recognize the RAW format of HDD disks. How to fix this problem? To do this, you can use several recommended tools, including Windows tools and specialized programs.

RAW format - what is it?

Some users mistakenly believe that the appearance of this format is solely due to the fact that the RAW file system appears instead of the usual one. We restore the disk by rolling back the system state to the previous state, and... the result is zero! Why?

Yes, only because the RAW format is not a file system, but rather the absence of one. This is why the operating system does not see the hard drive or logical partition (damage may also affect partition tables).

Sometimes the system can perceive a damaged HDD, but there is no information that should supposedly be present on it. That is, it is there, but it is impossible to read it. However, often when you try to access such a partition, Windows immediately displays a message about the need to format it before further use. Unfortunately, formatting does not always produce the desired effect, and information is destroyed. It will be very difficult to restore it later, although special programs can be used. But this is not the best method that allows you to convert the RAW format of HDDs. How to fix the situation with saving information? For such purposes, you should first turn to the system’s tools, which will be discussed separately.

Why is the format changing?

Among the reasons that cause the replacement of the desired format with an unreadable one, the main place is occupied by purposefully acting viruses, power surges, sudden power outages in the process of performing some system or user operations, etc.

It also happens that the system defines the hard drive as RAW, files and folders seem to be displayed, but it is impossible to do anything with them (copy, open, move, delete). In this case, you cannot even format the partition, change the volume label, or change its conditional or actual size.

RAW format of HDD disks: how to fix it using the simplest method?

The very first thing to do is to use the command console and run as administrator. You can call it from the “Run” menu (Win + R) using the cmd line.

The chkdsk command is used as a universal tool for restoring the format without data loss. Please note that if the system partition is damaged, you can only call the command line if you boot from removable media such as a LiveCD, a Windows installation disk, or from a bootable flash drive. As a rule, the combination Shift + F10 is used to open the console.

To run the command itself, you need to know the drive or partition letter (the so-called volume label). Let's say the damaged partition in the system is designated by the letter “D”. In this case, the command to be written will look like this: chkdsk d: /f. After entering it, you need to press the Enter key and wait for the file system recovery process to complete, after which you must restart the computer.

RAW format of HDD disks: instructions for using partition management tools

Windows has another powerful tool in the form of the Disk and Partition Management utility. It, along with the above command, is capable of restoring the RAW format of HDDs. How to fix the partition format using it? It's also easy. It’s just worth considering that this technique is designed exclusively for those cases when there is no data in the section.

First, through computer administration or using the diskmgmt.msc command in the Run console (Win + R), you need to call the built-in Disk Management system utility. Next, on the selected partition that has a damaged format, you should right-click and select the formatting line from the context menu.

If the system displays an error or formatting error message, in order to restore a RAW disk, initialization will first be required, followed by the creation of a simple volume. After completing these steps, formatting will be performed, and the disk or partition can be used again for your needs.

Using the TestDisk application

Interesting opportunities for recovering the HDD format are provided by the free TestDisk utility, which is designed as a portable version and does not require installation on the hard drive.

After starting the program in simulating DOS mode, you need to select the Create line, and then specify the disk that was converted to RAW format (you need to select the disk, not the partition). Next, the section style is set (this is usually done automatically).

At the next stage, select the analysis line (Analyze), press Enter, then Enter again with the Quick Search item selected.

In the analysis results, partitions for recovery will be marked in green with the letter P, those to be deleted will remain gray with the letter D. If you need to change the attribute from P to D, arrows are used.

To continue, press the Enter key again, select the Write button from below, then use Enter again, and press Y (Yes) to confirm the action. When the conversion is complete, all that remains is to restart your computer.

MiniTool Data Recovery utility

This program is also capable of restoring the RAW format of HDD disks. You can fix it as follows.

After launching the utility, a tool called Lost Partition Recovery is selected, the RAW partition is specified, and Full Scan is activated.

At the end of the scan, all files and folders that are in the partition with the changed format will be shown. They can be copied to another location, and then formatted in the application itself, or use the methods described above for this.

According to most experts, the program is good in everything (it works quickly, reliably and stably), but it has one huge drawback - it belongs to the category of shareware applications. The limitations in the trial version include the fact that using this utility it will not be possible to recover partitions larger than 1 GB (but you can also find distributions with activators on the Internet, although their use is illegal from the point of view of international law).

Recovering partitions in DMDE

DMDE is another program for converting disks and partitions of any type from the RAW system to the normal format.

In the application, you select a physical disk with a RAW format (do not uncheck the partition display line!), which can be visually identified by underlining, color mark, size or file system, after which you need to select it and click the open volume button just below. Next, you should check the contents by clicking the show sections button. If this is exactly what is required, the restore button is then used, then the operation is confirmed, and at the end of the process the “Apply” button is pressed. To avoid errors, although this is not required, it is advisable to reboot the system.

A few final words

These are the main methods for restoring a damaged HDD format. Only the most popular tools and programs were listed here. You can find many other interesting utilities on the Internet, but all of them, as evidenced by reviews from experts and users, work on similar principles.

When changing the format on the system partition, the same methods are used, but in this case, loading is done from removable media, and the main tool is exclusively the command console or portable versions of the above-described applications (for example, TestDisk).

Before you download a free program for formatting your hard drive, please note that Windows 7, 8, 8.1 or 10 have their own tools for such matters.

Moreover, even without having an installed operating system, you can format your hard drive (any partition) through the BIOS without downloading the program.

To do this, you just need a distribution kit (installation disk). During the installation process of Windows 7 or any other, you will be given the opportunity to format hard drive partitions.

You can also easily format any partition of a hard disk, with the exception of “C”, without a program, simply by right-clicking on it. mouse and clicking on the line format.

Disk “C” cannot be formatted in this way, since the system is installed on it, and Windows cannot destroy itself.

This can be done, but only either through the BIOS or by booting from another medium.

If you still prefer to download a program to format your hard drive, then go ahead.

Download a program to format your hard drive - Active Partition Manager

There are several free programs for formatting hard drives. I still recommend that you download: “Active Partition Manager”.

Why? It is free and in Russian. If you download from this site, if you download from the author’s site, then it is in English.

You can download the Active Partition Manager application for free at the very end of the entry (in the block) from this site or the author’s. At the time of reading, a new version may appear, now that I’m writing the latest

Additional tools are also integrated into it. In particular:

1. converting GPT partitions to MBR and vice versa;
2. creating a logical partition on the disk;
3. You can format in FAT32, ExFAT or NTFS;
4. if desired, it is possible to change the boot sector;
5. in case of unforeseen circumstances, you can make a rollback;
6. if you are not satisfied with the section, you can delete it;
7. much more.

The program also works great with memory cards and other external drives; in addition, you can divide one physical drive into several logical ones.

How to format a hard drive with Active Partition Manager

After downloading and installing, launch Active Partition Manager. After this you will see two windows. Close what's on top.

Now you will see all the partitions of your hard drive. Select the one you need and on the top panel click - format.

That's all mathematics. Since Active Partition Manager is in Russian, I won’t describe how to use other tools.

If you need to perform operations with flash cards or other external drives, the program provides them in the same window, only below. Good luck

Developer URL:
http://www.pcdisk.com.

OS:
XP, Windows 7, 8, 10

Interface:
Russian

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 drives 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 settings for the bevel of heads and cylinders established by the disk manufacturer, as well as the map of disk defects, were violated.

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 manufacturer-specific commands that are an extension of the standard. To avoid performing incorrect low-level formatting, many ATA devices have special commands that must be sent to the device to enable 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, make a note of the manufacturer name and model number of your hard drive.

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 an additional set of commands that are used during the formatting process, and the standard ATA specification commands 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 low-level formatting programs. 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 works great with drives from other manufacturers and performs detailed, full testing of the entire hard drive. This is one of the best general purpose programs 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 and IBM drives.

Advice!

All of the listed programs for initializing, testing and formatting a 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. Such funds are characterized by a number of limitations and problems that reduce their effectiveness. They perform low-level formatting on individual tracks using BIOS functions; This backs up and restores 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 for data to be stored 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 such programs are designed to work with specific 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

Let me make a reservation right away that 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 of a modern hard drive can only be done by the manufacturer.

Hard 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:

1. The hard drive, in this case, is from Western Digital (in this example, the Maxtor drive was tested, and the procedure was successful)
2. 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 the Windows system, without first loading using special boot disks. This is the easiest method for the average PC user.

Once the device is connected:

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

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

If after installation a dialog box appears with a message about the impossibility of starting the program, then close it and click on 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 on the Next button.

The program will display all connected drives. Despite the fact that in my example, the Maxtor test hard drive was formatted, and it was successful, I recommend that you use this program only for Western Digital drives, to avoid possible problems with the media. 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 exactly the right disk, otherwise you will lose all data on this media, without the possibility of recovering it, 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 currently on the drive. 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, it took me about 10 minutes to overwrite a 20 GB hard drive.

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, the low-level formatted hard drive 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 the required disk will be selected. 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 a very convenient diagnostic tool for its media.

In conclusion, I will give an example of how the Data Lifeguard Diagnostics program displays a failed drive. 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 are from 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.