Does formating fix ALL

[deftno9]

I was wondering if I should run disk check before formatting my drive. do disk errors and stuff thats fixed by running windows error checking get resolved when formatting? I would think that they would but not quite sure what exactly happens in the windows formatting process. Is it worth zero'ing my entire 120gb drive? (considering there's nothing on my drive that I need to hide from the FBI....yet) Thanks fo the help

[F|eA]

if its software then you should be cool by jsut formatting. however if the software error is caused by a hardware incompatibility, then you might not be so lucky. same applies if you're getting the error because of actual corruption / bad sectors and what not on teh disc. if teh drive is new, that should be unlikely

since you have a 120 gb, may i suggest partitioning the drive, so if you do need to format, you don't lose all 120 gb at once :)
i have a 40 gb, and i broke it down to 7 of apps and such and 33 ish for data

[Rich]

If you think you have any type of disk corruption, running checkdisk can help. Many manufacturers have drive specific diagnostic software that can be easily downloaded and run. The software is almost always required if you wish to RMA a disk anyway. If anything, all you waste is some time as you run the scanning. :D

I would also agree that partitioning out such a large drive is a good idea. You really don't need 120 gb unless you have a database of a lot of files you are keeping together, and if you do, you should have multiple drives in a RAID configuration anyway. I have found a primary partition of 10 gb is more than enough for either 2000 or XP and lots of software. (Install your games on a separate partition)

[caniswolfie]

Formatting a disk can mark sectors as bad which will result in not using those for data. Any windows filesystem errors will be corrected in the format as well. If you do have bad sectors on that disk it is possible that the disk will be going south and may not be reliable in the long run as more sectors could become bad later. So yes it will "fix" bad sectors and filesystem errors but it may not last.

[deftno9]

Thanks for the helps, yea my HD is pretty new.. one of those WD 8mb buffer 1s I got real cheap about a year ago so I think its mostly software related errors. Times to FORMAT yey...ugh :x

[Rich]

If you think that there may be ANY problem with your HD, I recommend running the software from WD, especially if you are still within the warranty period which was reduced from 3yr to 1yr :( not long ago (Oct 2002). http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp, although it depends on when the drive was purchased, you might actually have a 3yr on it. You would have to check the serial number. It would be better to catch a problem now, rather than later when it takes the whole thing out.

[MaNiAk21]

My WD has also gone bad, but formatting fixes nothing, it's now sitting in my closet and I don't think I will be buying another WD anytime soon... :evil:

[Rich]

I have had 3 WD go belly up on me. Luckily, this was back in the days of 3-yr warranties. Just had a maxtor go in March. One month from the 3-year limit. :wink:

[caniswolfie]

Yeah if a drive goes bad because of mechanical bearings/motors/circuit board.. formatting will do nothing. But usually in that case it will go quick and usually the thought of formatting won't do much...

[ELiTE KiLLaH]

so far ive just had a maxtor fubar on me

i format every once in a while to get rid of useless junk i accumulate lol
on my main drive, i usually have a partition of like 10gb or so for the installation of windows....everything else is on other partitions,

so whenever i format, i just format the windows partition and reinstall windows on that one

[Rich]

I am glad to see that there are people out there who actually think ahead when partitioning. You wouldn't believe the number of systems I have had to repair with full 40, or, 60 GB partitions. Gateways and Dells are notorious for such problems. If you ever run into this problem, you can use a program called Partition Magic http://www.partitionmagic.com/partitionmagic/. It will allow you to create and move partitions without losing data, assuming the drive is in good shape. I have saved many systems that way.

[deftno9]

I've never been a big fan of partitioning myself, dunno y just feels awkward for me??. I have a 40gig'er that I use for windows and all my installed program files and the 120gig, unpartitioned which I understand is pretty stupid, holding all my. well basiclly divx movies= about 80gb, cdimage files= 30gb, and mp3= 10gb.. but most of those movies I dont watch ne more and those games I've gotten bored of or have no time to play. So in formating all I have to really save are my mp3's and thats easily backed up on my 40gig'er, no biggie. Maybe this time I'll split my 120 drive and give partitioning a another try. Thanks for all the replies

[ELiTE KiLLaH]

yea ive used partition magic in the past
nice thing
gotta make sure to defrag first i think b4 u start moving partitions around

[hone]

WD has pretty good service. I've had 1 WD 120 gb hd go bad and they sent one back to me in a two weeks RMA was pretty quick too. My IBM hd has been running for 4 years strong now though.

[ELiTE KiLLaH]

so far ive only dealth with maxtors warrany department (thank god lol..cant have too many hd's die on me)

it was awesome, to say the least
they have 2 options:

1. u ship drive to them, they get it, they ship replacement back to u (not a good idea if you only have one hd/system...like me at the time..)

2. u give them a credit card #, and they ship out the replacement drive to you first, then you have 1 month to send back the faulty drive b4 they bill ur credit card with the amount of the replacement drive. (this is the one i opted for...very little downtime)

[Rich]

I just warrantied a maxtor a couple of months ago. Thank god the thing still has 1 month on the warranty! didn't have any problems with advanced RMA. I did have to call it in when their software failed to give an error code though. I think the motor failed. :(