What is disk formatting

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What Is Disk Formatting
Some computerusersmaybe afraidwhentheyencountererrorlike "Youneedtoformatthe diskbefore
you can use it" That's because some computer users have no concept about disk formatting.
What isdiskformatting?Diskformattingisaprocessof configuringdatastorage device suchashard disk
drive,solid-state drive, floppy disk, or USB flash drive for initial use.However, what does formatting a
hard drive do?Actually,the whole diskformattingprocessconsistsof three parts: low-level formatting,
partitioning, and high-level formatting.
Low-level Formatting
Low-level formatting is the process of marking out cylinders and tracks for a blank hard disk, and then
dividing tracks into multiple sectors with sector markers. So, this process is actually a kind of physical
formatting. And it is now often performed by hard disk manufacturers.
If usersperformlow-levelformattingwhendatahave beeninstalled,all existingfileswill be erased, and
it is almost impossibleto recover them. Therefore, some users make such a format to avoid privacy
leakage.Nevertheless,performing low-level formatting will cause damage to hard disk and shortenits
service life. Therefore, this formatting is not suggested for users.
Partitioning
Partitioning is the process of dividing a disk into one or more regions, the so called partitions. Disk
partitioning can be operated by users and it will affect the disk performance. Click Does Partitioning a
Hard Drive Affect Performance? Get Answer! for better partitioning method.
High-level Formatting
High-level formattingisthe processof writing a file system, cluster size, partition label, and so on for a
newlycreatedpartitionorvolume.Itistypicallydone to erase the hard disk and reinstall the operating
system back onto the disk drive.

High-level formattingwill clear data on hard disk, generate boot information, initialize FAT, and label
logical badsectorswhenthe partitionhasexisted.Formattingharddiskusuallydonebyuseris the high-
level formatting.
Formatting Hard Disk
Disk formatting is the process of preparing a hard disk drive or flexible disk
medium for data storage. In some cases, the formatting operation may also
create one or more new file systems. The formatting process that performs
basic medium preparation is often referred to as “low-level formatting.” The
term “high-level formatting” most often refers to the process of generating a
new file system. In certain operation systems (e.g., Microsoft Windows), the
two processes are combined and the term “format” is understood to mean an
operation in which a new disk medium is fully prepared to store files.
Illustrated to the right are the prompts and diagnostics printed by MS-DOS’s
FORMAT.COM utility as a hard drive is being formatted.
Formatting a disk for use by an operating system and its applications involves
three different steps.
Low-level formatting (i.e., closest to the hardware) marks the surfaces of the
disks with markers indicating the start of a recording block (typically today
called sector markers) and other information like block CRC to be used later,
in normal operations, by the disk controller to read or write data. This is
intended to be the permanent foundation of the disk, and is often completed at
the factory.
Partitioning creates data structures needed by the operating system. This
level of formatting often includes checking for defective tracks or defective
sectors.

High-level formatting creates the file system format within the structure of the
intermediate-level formatting. This formatting includes the data structures
used by the OS to identify the logical drive or partition’s contents). This may
occur during operating system installation, or when adding a new disk. Disk
and distributed file system may specify an optional boot block, and/or various
volume and directory information for the operating system.
Partitioning
Partitioning is the process of writing information into blocks of a storage
device or medium that allows access by an operating system. Some operating
systems allow the device (or its medium) to appear as multiple devices; i.e.
partitioned into multiple devices.
On MS-DOS, Windows, and UNIX-based operating systems (such as BSD,
Linux/GNU, OS X) this is normally done with a partition editor, such as fdisk,
parted, and Disk Utility. These operating systems support multiple partitions.
In current IBM mainframe OSs derived from OS/360 and DOS/360, such as
z/OS and z/VSE, this is done by the INIT command of the ICKDSF utility.
These OSs support only a single partition per device, called a volume. The
ICKDSF functions include creating a volume label and writing a Record 0 on
every track.
Floppy disks are not partitioned; however depending upon the OS they may
require volume information in order to be accessed by the OS.
Partition editors and ICKDSF today do not handle low level functions for
HDDs and optical disk drives such as writing timing marks, and they cannot
reinitialize a modern disk that has been degaussed or otherwise lost the
factory formatting.

Disk formatting is the process of preparing a data storage device such as a hard
disk drive, solid-state drive, floppy disk or USB flash drive for initial use. In some
cases, the formatting operation may also create one or more new file systems.
The first part of the formatting process that performs basic medium preparation
is often referred to as "low-level formatting". Partitioning is the common term for
the second part of the process, making the data storage device visible to an
operating system.[1] The third part of the process, usually termed "high-level
formatting" most often refers to the process of generating a new file system. In
some operating systems all or parts of these three processes can be combined or
repeated at different levels[3] and the term "format" is understood to mean an
operation in which a new disk medium is fully prepared to store files.
Formatting Disk Drive
Step 1: Partition the hard disk
1. Insert the Windows XP CD into your CD or DVD drive, or insert the first Windows XP
Setup disk into the floppy disk drive, and then restart the computer to start the
Windows XP Setup program.Note If you are using the Windows XP Setup disks,
insert each additional disk when you are prompted, and then press ENTER to
continue after you insert each disk.
2. If you are prompted, select any options that are required to start the computer from
the CD or DVD drive.
3. If your hard disk controller requires a third-party original equipment manufacturer
(OEM) driver, press F6 to specify the driver.
4. At the Welcome to Setup page, press ENTER.
5. Press F8 to accept the Windows XP Licensing Agreement.
6. If an existing Windows XP installation is detected, you are prompted to repair it. To
bypass the repair, press ESC.
7. All existing partitions and non-partitioned spaces are listed for each physical hard
disk. Use the ARROW keys to select an existing partition, or create a new partition
by selecting the non-partitioned space where you want to create a new partition. You
can also press C to create a new partition using non-partitioned space.
8. To create the partition with the maximum size, press ENTER. To specify the partition
size, type the size in megabytes (MB) for the new partition, and then press ENTER.
9. If you want to create additional partitions, repeat steps g. and h.
10. To format the partition and install Windows XP.

Step 2: Format the hard disk and install Windows XP
1.
1. Use the ARROW keys to select the partition where you want to install
Windows XP, and then press ENTER.
2. Select the format option that you want to use to format the partition. You can
select from the following options:Notes
 Format the partition by using the NTFS file system (Quick)
 Format the partition by using the FAT file system (Quick)
 Format the partition by using the NTFS file system
 Format the partition by using the FAT file system
 Leave the current file system intact (no changes)
 If the selected partition is a new partition, the option to leave the
current file system intact is not available.
 If the selected partition is larger than 32 gigabytes (GB), the FAT file
system option is not available.
 If the selected partition is larger than 2 GB, the Windows Setup
program uses the FAT32 file system (you must press ENTER to
confirm).
 If the partition is smaller than 2 GB, the Windows Setup program uses
the FAT16 file system.
 If you deleted and created a new System partition, but you are
installing Windows XP on a different partition, you are prompted to
select a file system for both the System and Startup partitions.
3. Press ENTER.
4. After the Windows Setup program formats the partition, follow the instructions
that appear on the screen to install Windows XP.

Does Format Hard Drive ReallyErase All Data?
Remember that "format" and "delete" do not mean erase!
When you format or reformat a hard drive it doesn't erase the data on the hard drive --
only the address tables. In a case where you have accidentally completed a format hard
drive, a computer specialist may be able to recover most or all of the data that was on
the drive.
Keeping in mid that data can be pulled from a newly formatted hard drive with the right
tools, for any business or corporation that is planning to donate old computers to
charity, this could pose a security risk if the hard drive contained confidential business
information.
Remember — just because you may donate the computer to charity that doesn't mean
an honest person will end up with the hard drive. While that shouldn't deter you from
recycling old computers in this way, it should be an incentive to ensure all business data
has been completely wiped from the hard drive. Never just delete the files and assume
they are gone because you can't see them on the hard drive. Businesses should at the
very least run the format command to erase the hard drive.
The safest method to completely remove data is to overwrite the disk. You can do this
yourself, although it is time consuming. To overwrite the disk would mean to format,
then fill the disk completely with data, and format again. The easiest way to do this is to
use a software program that will overwrite the disk for you. Most of these programs,
often referred to as "Data Dump" software, meet the strict deletion requirements of the
U.S. military.

Symptoms of HDD Says Need to Format Problem
Obviously, the warning message is the main symptom of this error.
Apart from this, if the data becomes inaccessible, or if the drive size
becomes 0, or if the file system of external HDD becomes RAW, your
hard drive may be in need of a format also.
What Causes Disk Format Error?
Various reasons are responsible for this problem. Here we will focus
on some major causes of this problem.
 The bad sectors or external hard drive corruption is the main
cause of this problem.
 Power surge during file transfer.
 If the user has not removed hard disk safely from the system,
next time the system may ask to format it.
 Virus or malware on your system can make the system not
recognizing the particular drive.
Solutions to Fix Format Your Hard Drive Problem
However, it is possible that this error a user could fix using some
manual tricks. Can your external hard drive problem be resolved by
these methods? Well, in order to know, you have to try these
techniques.

Method 1: – Try Another System: The Windows asks to format the
hard drive if it cannot recognize it. It is better to connect the disk with
any other system to see if that system recognizes this HDD or not.
Some time due to virus intrusion the system prompts error: you need
to format disk before you can use it.
Method 2: – Change Drive Letter: You can also assign a different
letter to your external hard drive and reconnect it to your system. This
may make your system recognize the external hard disk. In some
situations, the system is unable to assign a unique drive letter and it
results in the need to format the disk before use error.
Method 3: – Check with Anti-virus Programs: You can scan the
entire system including the connected hard drive with reliable anti-
virus software. Make sure to confirm that the anti-virus tool does not
delete any files while fixing the problem. So, it is better to first save
your important files and then moves to fix error: my external hard drive
says it needs to be formatted.
Method 4: – Directly Connect to Motherboard: Often, external hard
drive related issues arise from troubled cables. If you are a tech-savvy
person, you should try to connect your external hard disk directly with
your Motherboard. Thus you will know if the problem is there because
of the faulty cable/ USB.
Method 5: – Change Cable and Port: The USB cable and USB port
may be causing this warning message. Try changing the cable and
connect by a new port to see if the matter is resolved. Sometimes, the
system port is having some issue and it results in: you need to format
disk error.
Method 6: – Use CHKDSK Command: This is an effective command
to resolve hard drive formatting issues. In order to run this command,
first, connect the hard disk to your system. Then,
1. Press Win + R to get the run box and there type “cmd” to open
the command prompt.

2. Type chkdsk [drive letter]: /f in the command window and it will
start checking the drive and fix it.
3. When the process is done completely, restart your system.
Reconnect the hard disk and see if the problem still persists.
Secure Your Data Before Fixing You Need to
FormatDisk Error
In case you are having this problem even after trying all the methods
we have described above, ultimately you will have to format your
drive. But wait, as we all know, formatting will erase all the data from
the external drive, then what to do? The solution is easy – try Hard
Drive Data Recovery Software. This tool can resolve this problem for
good. The user can utilize this application in two different ways:
1. If your system asks to format your external hard disk, you
need to take the backup of the files it contains. Scan your
external HDD with this program and save all your files in another
safe location. Then you can format your external HDD and
restore the files back into the drive.
2. If you have already formatted the HDD, you can still retrieve
your files with the help of this software. Just use Formatted Scan
button for the external hard drive and you will be able to restore
all the erased files.
Hard Drive Needs to Be Formatted Before Using
It – User’s Queries
Here I am going to list different users’ queries. All queries are taken
from different forum sites. Simply read it and understand why you
need to format disk error:
User Query 1: “Every time I try to open it, my Seagate hard drive says
it needs to be formatted. This problem started when one day, I

suddenly disconnected my external HDD from the system, instead of
removing it safely. Now I do not even have any backup of the files
stored on that HDD. Tell me how can I fix this problem?”
User Query 2: “I am new in this computing world and the external
HDD problem is driving me crazy. A few days ago, WD hard drive
says needs formatting. Seeing no other option, I formatted it and at
the same time, I lost all the data. Is there any way to recover data from
formatted external hard drive? If yes, then please tell me.”
User Query 3: “After attaching the external hard disk to my computer
it prompts an error message i.e. you need to format the disk before
you can use it. The drive contains some important files which I can
lose. Is there any solution for my external hard says it need to be
formatted error”
‘External hard drive needs to be formatted before opening’, is an
annoying error. In most cases, some bad sectors on the hard drive are
responsible for this problem. In most cases, the way to access the
drive is to format it. the perfect software to recover deleted files from
the hard drive even after formatted disk. Thus, users will regain
access to the hard disk easily and that too without losing any data.

What is disk formatting

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