Low level formatting

raoul_1101

raoul_1101

Member
Ok, I have a hard drive right now in a working computer, and I'm also building another computer. My plan is back up all of my files on my hard drive now and format the hard drive. Then I will install a new operating system on to the hard drive on my new computer. I'm doing this of course, because you cannot just put a hard drive into a totally new computer and have the OS still work right. The thing is, I have no idea how to format my hard drive. Can you help me please?
 
Generally the installation routine of the OS (Windows or Linux) will provide a screen to do partitioning and formatting.

Or you can get a 3rd party app like GParted http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ (free), to boot ionto aLive environment and partition and format your drive(s)
 
munkyeetr said:
Generally the installation routine of the OS (Windows or Linux) will provide a screen to do partitioning and formatting.
Click to expand...

That's for high-level formatting, not low-level... Unless your drive has bad sectors or something, a standard high-level format should be fine.
 
Good point, I assumed by his post that he didn't need a low-level format, but it might be better not to assume such things.
 
Well, either could work, I just want to clear everything off, and as far as I know, there is no problems on my hard drive. So, what you're saying to do, is to install the hard drive int othe computer I'm building now without formatting it first, and then install the new windws disks and format it using the setup then?
 
The Windows installer will detect the existing partitions found on the drive providing they are not Linux or Solaris perhaps Apple/Mac. The installer itself can be used to delete the current partition. From there the installer will then display the total amount of drive space available for creating a new primary.

With XP the one drawback found was leaving a small amount of drive space untouched like some 8mb at the rear of the drive when the installer is used for the creating the new one. That was found when comparing how the Vista installer utilitized all drive space when booting with GParted. One tool for simply wiping a drive clean is called "eraser" found at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=37015&package_id=65323

On some occasions XP will run when the drive is simply thrown into another system but "not reliably" due to the drastic changes seen in the hardware environment. A fresh installation of the OS planned on a new partition always sees the best results. This provides the best hardware detection and profile Windows then creates.
 
PC eye said:
With XP the one drawback found was leaving a small amount of drive space untouched like some 8mb at the rear of the drive when the installer is used for the creating the new one. That was found when comparing how the Vista installer utilitized all drive space when booting with GParted.
Click to expand...

The 8mbs are partitioned its just hidden and not formated, its used for converting drives to a dymanic volume
 
StrangleHold said:
The 8mbs are partitioned its just hidden and not formated, its used for converting drives to a dymanic volume
Click to expand...

The 8mb found here was "unallocated drive space". :rolleyes: GParted was then used to extend the primary to capacity. No problems seen with any drive info. This was seen at the back not front of the drive.

raoul_1101 said:
so, theres a chance my system wont run if i throw in my hard drive before its formatted?
Click to expand...

You must likely will problems come up when trying to run the current installetion of Windows. Sometimes you can remove the current board drivers and then install the driver set for the new board but you wanted a clean drive to start off. You can install the drive and clean it in the new case or do this while in the old one. That part won;t matter. It's easier to already have it installed in the new one since that means less effort would it already known to be working in the new build. If the rest of the hardwares are good you then only have to partition/format/OS the drive unless used for storage.
 
PC eye said:
The 8mb found here was "unallocated drive space". :rolleyes: GParted was then used to extend the primary to capacity. No problems seen with any drive info. This was seen at the back not front of the drive.
Click to expand...

Ok, I,m glad it worked out for you. Why I needed to know that I dont know?
 
so, theres a chance my system wont run if i throw in my hard drive before its formatted?
Click to expand...
It more than likely will not work unless you reinstall (or repair install) the OS. Since you were just planning on doing that anyway, just put the drive in and use the OS installer to format it.
 
OH, i dont care if it works badly, as long as it does, I'm giong to put a new OS on it, as long as it runs until then
 
The Windows installer can be used two ways there. Like Cromewell pointed out you easily perform a repair install to see if there will be any problems with the drive itself. http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Or you can easily delete the current primary and use the installer to create a new one for Windows to be installed onto. The repair install or deletion of the current installation would still preserve files and folders outsde of the Windows, DocumentsandSettings, and Program Files directories. What Vista does now is fold up everything found into a Windows.old folder when that goes on. But simply getting Windows running or the best hardware detection with a clean install(recommended) is still upto you if you still have files to save.

As far as finding the 8mb space here at the back of the drive that was when using the XP installer originally for creating the single primary. This wasn't seen with Vista on the second ide drive or when GParted was used for the two sata drives added lately. Between two identical drives, same make - same model, that was a little odd seeing that there. But GParted did show the XP primary as smaller then Vista's on the second drive. Despite the improvements and added features seen with the Vista installer GParted still takes the lead there.
 
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