Info on hard disks and partitions..

01-06-2006, 07:24 AM

Hey guys,
1>Can u tell me wheather re-formatting a partition reduce the hard disk's life?
2>What are bad sectors?How can they be removed?How do they occour?

bikram_singhy · 01-06-2006, 11:27 AM

HI

1) No reformatting Does not reduce HDD life

2) Bad sectors r Physical damaged blocks on HDD where Data can neither b written and nor be read from.

No u can not repair Bad sectors but yes u can mark them as BAD by Scandisk so that the OS sees them as BAD and will not try to access that block.

The reason varies for their occurance...

1) ur system hangs while reading from disk and u switch off or press reset button.
2) Sudden power fauilers
3) Bad vantilated Cabinet and ur HDD heats UP.
4) Bad powersupply (SMPS) providing Excessive Current to the HDD..
5) Mishandling of the HDD etc..

Hope this info helps..

bikram

01-06-2006, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bikram_singhy

HI

1) No reformatting Does not reduce HDD life

bikram

But re-formatting a Hard Disk is also physical formats?They are actually created on the hard disk?

zuala77 · 01-06-2006, 03:14 PM

Hi.....Too many reformatting of ur hard-disk reduces life...just look at it this ways when u reformat the head reads and writes simultaneously ,writing too many times . This can develop many bad sectors.
I had spoilt my 80GB Hard-disk this way...but u will find it amazing how much wear and tear Good hard-disk can take...like if u reformat everyweek for a year..i dont think so it will last

bikram_singhy · 01-06-2006, 04:36 PM

I 100% agree to zuala77

Reformatting HDD again and again definatly reduces the Lifespan of a HDD

but Reformating once or twice in a Year is fine......

My answer was to wether reformating HDD will reduce its life or not...

definatly i should have suppiorted it with how much time is Ok to reformat....

my apologies.....

But I have never reformated HDD again if once i load a OS over it... I just clean my system My way and reinstall the New OS if needed.....

bye

phatratt · 01-06-2006, 09:26 PM

i don't know how reformatting reduces the HDD life.Am using a 5yr old samsung 20Gb hdd and formatted it a countless types,changed file systems and installed different o/s and not a single problem,its only a myth.

permanent bad sectors happens,if the hdd is physically abused,like dropping it,voltage flucuation,minor shocks are enough for the read/write head to touch the platter also knows as headslap which makes a permanent mark on the HDD.

alienspiesu · 02-06-2006, 01:25 AM

here's an fdisk tutorial..jst in case u need it!!
FDISK Tutorial

The Basics of Fdisk:
Primary partitions are the only one that are bootable. They're always the C: drive when active. Normally you can only have one (more with some special tricks etc.) Extended partitions are needed when you want more than one partition. You can only have ONE Extended partition. Logical Drives come into the Extended partition. They are handy since you know that you can only have one Primary and one Extended so you can get more than only two partitions. They would be your D:, E:, etc. drives.

First you need to reboot your system with the Boot Disk inserted.

1.At the A: prompt start "FDISK."

2.If asked to use Large Disc support say Yes.

3.The first screen looks like this:

Create Dos Partition or Logical Drive
Set Active Partition
Delete Partitions or Logical DOS Drives
Display Partition Information
Change current fixed drive. (In case you have two or more Hard Drivess)
So, to prepare you hopefully did a backup from your data. You did, didn't you ?!

4.Next we need to remove the existing partitions. So go to 3.

5.Next screen like this:

Delete Primary DOS
Delete Extended DOS
Delete Logical Drives
Delete Non-DOS
Delete always in the following order

Logical (All) > Extended > Primary (Last)

6.Go back to first screen after all partitions have been removed.

7.Now we need to setup our new partitions. Go to 1.

This screen looks like this:

Create Primary DOS
Create Extended DOS
Create Logical DOS Drives
Here we create in the following order

Primary > Extended > Logical Drives.

8.First create the Primary. If asked to use all space say No and enter the amount you wish for the C: drive. It should be set automatically to be the (only) Active partition. If not it may ask you or you have to select "2. Set active partition" from the main menu.

9.Next create the Extended Partition. Use all space left.

It probably advances automatically to the next step, creating the Logical DOS Drives.

10.Enter the amount you wish for the D: partition and than the rest for the third partition.

Think first about the size for the partitions.

OK now we're finished with FDISK so just exit it. Next you need to reboot with the disc still inserted and Format all partitions (the C: partition might need to be formatted with "format c: /s", check the Win95 tip). Another reboot and you can go ahead and install Windows.

When your system supports booting from CD just insert the Windows CD and reboot. The setup will start.

If not, follow these steps:

Win98: insert Boot Disk and CD, reboot, choose "2. boot with CDROM support" and once you're at the prompt change to your CD-drive letter (depends on your partition setup) and enter "setup".
Win95: You must format the C: partition with "Format C: /s"!. Next install your CDROM driver, reboot, insert the Win95 CD, change to the CD-driveletter, enter "setup".
I hope I made no mistakes.

Akhil Jain · 06-06-2006, 06:59 PM

so, guys ..according to u there is no harm in formatting harddrive.................my vendor told me that i had developed bad sectors in my drive due to formatting again and again.............i think about 10 times in 2 years...........now please tell me if there is harm in formatting as i donot want to take risk with my new HDD