What does formatting a hard drive mean and what does it do.?

Answer 1

i think this is the third time that i've answered a somewhat similar question,but to answer yours...,

first you have to understand how your hard drive works.inside the HD casing are platters of smooth-surfaced magnetically-coated metal platters (disks),usually two or (usually) more stacked on top each other on a spindle which spin at high speed.usually for normal pc's - 5400 and 7200 rpm,but high end systems even@10,000 rpm.
these platters have spaces between them for the arms with the read/write heads,which hover very,very close to the surface of these platters.
these arms ,usually attached to voice coil actuators,have endpoints which give off small electrical impulses which leave a magnetic charge on the surface of the disk rearranging the electrons in the magnetic coating,
thus creating these series of one's and zero's which your computer understands and work with,...the binary format.
so your data is stored as one's and zero's magnetically implanted on the surface of the disks.

ok,so far?

ok,now when you format a hard disk,you are not really wiping out the data,the one's and zero's....the data is still there,even recoverable with some software tools.what really happens is you are just removing or erasing the pointers to those data."low-level" formatting is done in the factory just to establish the track and sector areas of the disk,"zero-fill" is a type of low-level formatting,in which your drive is filled with "zero's",while "high-level formatting" is done when you either -

#1 - "quick format" - (erases just the start of the disks,like the table of contents in a book analogy)

#2 - "full format" - erases each and every start of each track.(like the chapter markers and page numbers on books...more or less.)

and at the same time,formatting also creates a new blank table of contents for your hard drive.it will fill it up as you install the os,your programs,or as you save your files,etc., giving each single file an "address"(usually multiple addresses because your file is not saved in a single or continous space in your disk,but that is another matter)...and doing so in their respective formats,ie,fat 32 or ntfs for windows and hfs for macs,..etc

so basically,when you format a drive,it virtually "erases" everything on your disk,including your operating system.

additional info - if formatting removes and changes your "table of contents" in the book analogy,..then fdisk removes and changes all the "signs and labels and directions" from the entire library.

i hope that helped.cheers.

Answer 2

There are two types of formats for formatting a drive
-> Low-level
or
-> High-level.

In most cases, an individual is performing a High-level format. Formatting the drive documents the drive for bad sectors and builds or rebuilds the file table on the drive. The file table is a directory that keeps track of all the files on the drive. A common mis-conception is that the formatting the drive deletes the files, when actually the reference to the file in the file table is being deleted. This is why the FBI or shows like CSI can recover files from a "formatted drive"

A file is only truly deleted when the portion of the drive storing the file is overwritten by another file several times or by low-level formatting. Low-level formatting unlike high-level formatting requires special software (best when provided by the drive vendor) writes over the entire drive and the file table. This may be done by writing over the drive several times with zeros and stuff, but this ensures the file is truly deleted.
Under Windows you have the option to do a quick or full format. Both are a form of a High-level format, just the quick format doesn't document the drive for bad sectors and thus takes less time.

Answer 3

Partitions on a hard disk need to be formatted before they can be used by an operating system e.g windows xp. Basically formatting has two main functions, firstly it creates a root directory which is the basis of a structure which later allows files and folders to be created and secondly a file allocation table (FAT) of (NTFS) these file systems are responsible for keeping track of where data is stored on the disk... You may want to try looking into partitions on a hard drive these can be interesting!! Hope this helps though

Answer 4

Formatting Wipes the top Layer of Information, and makes the Hard Drive useful as a Place for an OS.
It does not remove everything, since most good undelete programmes can recover up to ten generations back.

Answer 5

Formatting a hard drive removes everything from the hard drive. All files, folders, programs, and the operating system. It provides a good start for someone who's computer is grossly malfunctioning. By allowing you to start with a clean slate, when you have Windows XP cd you can restore the computer to its brand new factory state. (or whichever operating system you are using)

Answer 6

a not easypersistent comes without formatting from production unit, this simply by fact no 2 working structures use an identical document device formats. so which you will possibly in many situations could desire to place in the working device by using booting from the working device disk, and it then gives you to create a partition. This in result additionally formats it. A pre-formattedpersistent might have already got a partition created and a document device format on it. not an excellent concept until they state this sort of document device, and that document device is the form your working device demands. no remember if it somewhat is not, you will possibly prefer to apply the stepped forward selection for the time of the set as much as delete ALL partitions and then create a partition to load on. you prefer a clean criminal replica of living house windows which has by no potential been used on yet another gadget or it won't activate.

Answer 7

Formatting a hard drive basically means erasing it so that it's back to it's original blank factory condition.

Answer 8

It erases it completely and formats it for whatever operating system you are using.

Answer 9

You will completly erase your hard drive

Answer 10

erase everything off your hard drive