Differences between Wipe & Low-Level formatting?

[Purshottam Y]

I am new to this forum, so expecting that you members will ignore my mistakes(if any). I would like a hard drive from Western Digital (WD205AA) LowLevel format for any reason whatsoever. On the homepage, I get only programs do a Erase Disk is the same as a LowLevel formatting? Can I take LowLevel formatting other manufacturers such as Maxtor? Before doing that I want to know about the differences between Wipe & Low-Level formatting. Since, I am not having much idea about these formatting levels, so thought to post here, so that I can get some good notes about it. Please help me as soon as possible.

[Kalanidhi]

Low Level Format

Imagine you have a small baby of age, sit on a wooden table and hammer nails and give him permission to play the carpenter. Obviously after the game ended, the surface of it will be full of scratches and holes. Then you will need to Pula, mass fill and repaint to the surface is impeccable. This case fits the low-level format the hard "polishing" the surface or dishes to overcome this physical errors. Because it is a delicate procedure, it is not always recommended to apply only to extreme cases and as a last resort to retrieve a record (no data). This procedure is done via DOS, with software that gives you the maker of your disk. Usually creating a boot disk with the files necessary to run it. The success of this operation does not guarantee the impossibility of future failures.

High-level format

Now, we continue with the example of the baby, now wants to play small, only now, after learning from past experience, you give a paper, some markers and crayons. At the end of the activity will, in addition to the paper, a multi-colored dining table, but in this case is sufficient to pass a clean damp cloth to stop the work surface. This is a typical example of high-level format, here using the Format command from Windows itself or some other program, we can "clean" the area of data stored on disk to store our information again. This procedure does not represent a major threat to your hard drive.

[Barsha]

At a low-level formatting, the tracks and sectors on a disk according to the actually existing physical disks and heads (disk geometry) using manufacturer specified bit patterns overwritten. In addition, the readability of all sectors will be examined and hide bad sectors and replaced with spare sectors. This is all done without the assistance of an operating system and the The result is a brand new board acting without partitions or data. Of course, the effective capacity it will be less if too many bad sectors are found and the Spare sectors are no longer sufficient. The bad sectors but are hidden in each case and are invisible to the operating systems. A "Shooter" is to my knowledge, very rarely, if the tool used to drive belonging and the disk type is correctly identified and selected. The "killer" of hard disks by using a low-level formatting is especially true in the very early IDE models were overwritten when the formatting tools, data areas, the information for positioning of the heads contained. This was achieved by increased intelligence of the controller on the disk but soon ruled out. / Edit: A "shoot" the hard drive is far more possible if the formatting process by Power failure or other catastrophes is interrupted. Then possible that the hard drive to respond at all any more, since not even the controller on the hard disk or something the garbage can begin. A broken high-level formatting, but you can certainly with new partitioning, or just "cure" by a low-level format. The data in each case are gone, could have been, however, be clear ...

[Saura]

Incidentally, the formatting on an operating system (like Windows), written in by the low-level Formatting structures produced additional administrative structures and also checks for bad sectors. These bad sectors but will not disappear but the Summary. Through this high-level formatting, the usable capacity is therefore reduced a little. Also be the high-level formatting more sectors grouped into "clusters (so-called Clusters) that represent the smallest elements, which manages the operating system. I hope this is it all a little clearer ...

[Anirvinya]

A new hard drive, by the number of heads, tracks and density a fixed physical size. Spare sectors are not available. In the low-level format, the tracks are divided into sectors, set start and end characters, and examined the writing and readability of the sectors. Previously it was just bad sectors are identified and marked as such and blocks. Modern HDDs are but a difference in the position to the middle and outer lanes, with an altered timing, the position of the sectors in the track so fall that damaged parts of a track is not in a sector, but in a gap between the sectors. Too bad media disks are in production already sorted out. Theoretically, one could write to the outer tracks of the disk much more sectors than in the inner traces, because there the sectors are mechanically much longer than the inner tracks. But this is not practical because the read / write speed is not enough of heads at the same speed. The time window, which is available per sector remains the same. This is also the reason why faulty sections of an inner track can not be forced into the gaps. With a further low-level formatting more errors are found on the disk, and these errors can not all be pressed into gaps, so the usable capacity of the disk is smaller. A low-level formatting so you should perform only after massive hard disk problems, and it must take into account that the capacity is smaller. In practice, the patient died of a problem-HDD shifts to a LL-formatting by only a few days.

[Kaufman]

Should only be formatted in low density when suspected virus FAT (File Allocation Table or File Allocation Table) and MBR (Master Boot Record or Master Boot Record), and when the normal formatting does not solve performance problems, and mainly when the unit makes noises or repeated. Also when there are errors in the MBR, boot partitions or boot is likely to appear due to the record companies Antivirus Software boot, boot managers, and etc ... You must first confirm whether the hard drive is what gives that sound. Not from a fan, a swollen capacitor or other electronic component or end cap which receives the vibrations of the fans, nor noise from electrical outlet and extension (extension), or a lamp or bulb, and what is even external electrical noise from the lamp house and power lines and connected devices, much less the appliance, fans, etc ...

[Aashirya]

Very well explained, but had read elsewhere that a low level format pretty head hurts? that there is any truth to that? after 3 or 4 quick formatting yesterday I spent the Wipe with a Seagate 7200 .7 30.000 of life to just delete everything I had to make sure no residue. Verified by HDTune no errors in yellow or anything serious or bad sectors, so I thought it was not necessary to make a low-level format in case I and eventually perhaps f*** off the MBR ...