Low-level hdd formatting utility. What is low-level formatting and how is it done? Performing an instant secure erase

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Hard drives (hard drives, hard drives, HDDs) are unusually pampered devices. Just shake it a little, overheat it, look askance - and the disk is already covered with terrible “bad blocks” that threaten both it and all the information on it with inevitable death.

In the event of disk failures, the most important thing is to save valuable data. But what to do then with their carrier? Can it be used in the future? They say that one medicine helps with all such “sores”: low level formatting hard drive. Let's figure out what this “pill” is and when it becomes necessary to prescribe it.

What is it really?

Low level formatting today is called something completely different from what it really is. In fact, this is one of the stages of manufacturing disk drives, and it is carried out at the factory.

As you know, all . Each piece of data has a unique address where it can be found. Creating areas for recording data on a clean magnetic surface and assigning addresses to them is low-level formatting.

More precisely, this is the process of physically dividing the disk surface into tracks(circles or tracks along which the read/write heads move), their sectors(track sections are the smallest areas of information storage on disk drive With own address) And intersectoral intervals. And also - application servo tags– service records between sectors and within them, according to which the head control system ( servo system HDD) will be able to position the latter.

After marking, the disk surface is thoroughly scanned to identify defects in the magnetic layer (physically “broken” sectors), which must be excluded from addressing. Based on the test results, a list of defects and a translator are generated - a table for correlating serviceable ones physical sectors logical (numbered). This is also part of the factory formatting.

A long time ago, this entire procedure could be performed using the BIOS of a home PC. Today there are practically no such computers and storage devices left. Modern HDDs cannot be physically repartitioned without special equipment and software, and low-level formatting is the operation of “filling” the logical space with zeros (without access to the service areas in which the translator is stored).

As a result of this formatting:

All information (except for service information) is deleted from the hard drive.
A custom defect list is created with the addresses of bad sectors that will be hidden - excluded from subsequent read and write operations.
Defective sectors are replaced with “healthy” ones from the reserve area (remap).

What problems does pseudo-low-level formatting help solve?

The operation is used:

To prepare a computer for transfer into the wrong hands, so that the new owner cannot restore the files of the previous one.
For corrections that cannot be removed using non-destructive methods.
For the treatment of certain types of boot viruses.

It is effective:

If the appearance of “broken” sectors is not associated with a malfunction of the mechanical and electrical components of the hard drive. For example, they formed after a short-term overheating of the disk or sudden shutdown computer power supply, and their number is not growing.
If there are relatively few defects.

An example of detecting several unstable sectors when scanning a hard drive with the HD Tune utility:

It's useless:

If the hard drive has suffered from a fall, drowning, or depressurization of the case (hermetic unit).
If it makes grinding, knocking, grunting and other unnatural sounds when turned on or is poorly detected by the computer (disappears periodically).

The main area of this disk is occupied by unreadable sectors. Treatment with homemade “low-level” formatting will most likely not help him:

What and how to carry out “low-level” formatting at home

Any utility designed for this will be able to fill the surface of the hard drive with zeros and replace the “bad” sectors with normal ones. Even created by a manufacturer of hard drives of a different brand. Rewrite and remapping operations are triggered by a standard algorithm that is understood by all disk controllers (the final decision on remapping bad sectors it is the controller that accepts). These utilities do not have the ability to use highly specific technological commands, so they are not able to cause any harm to the device.

Which utility will do the job you need best? It’s not a fact that the native version of your hard drive will work more accurately than the universal one. One didn’t help, try another. There will be no harm from this, but there may be some benefit, since to correct one defective block sometimes you need to make several attempts.

Let's figure out how to perform “low-level” HDD formatting using three free utilities.

Universal HDD Low Level Format Tool (HDDLLFT) for Windows

Let's connect the problem disk to the PC under Windows control.
Download and install the application HDDLLFT. After installation, select “ Continueforfree» (Continue for free).

In the list of drives, mark the one that we are going to format and click the “ Continue>>>».

In the next window, go to the section “ LowlevelFormat" and click " Formatthisdevice»

Let's confirm the operation again and wait for it to finish.

SeaTools for DOS for HDD Seagate

SeaToolsforDOS released in format iso image to sign up for bootable dvds, flash drives and floppy disks. After starting the computer from such media, the main window of the utility immediately opens. For convenience, let’s switch it to Russian, mark the problematic drive in the list, go to the menu “ Additional functions "(Advanced Features) and click " Erase everything"(Erase all).

Windows Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for WD hard drives

W indows Data Lifeguard Diagnostics is one of the proprietary applications Western Digital with the function of “low-level” disk formatting. In addition to it, this function is supported by utilities

Good day.

Questions regarding work hard disk ( or as they say HDD) - always a lot (probably one of the most numerous directions). Often enough to resolve this or that issue - HDD needs to be formatted. And here, some questions are superimposed on others: “And how? With what? This program does not see the disk, which one should I replace it with?” etc.

In this article I will present the best (in my opinion) programs that help cope with this task.

Important! Before formatting the HDD with one of the presented programs, save all important information from the hard drive to other media. During the formatting process, all data from the media will be deleted and it is sometimes extremely difficult to restore something (and sometimes even impossible!).

"Tools" for working with hard drives

Acronis Disk Director

In my opinion, this is one of the best programs to work with hard drive. Firstly, there is support for the Russian language (for many users this is fundamental), secondly, it supports all Windows operating systems: XP, 7, 8, 10, thirdly, the program has excellent compatibility and “sees” all disks (unlike from other utilities of this kind).

Judge for yourself, you can do “anything” with hard disk partitions:

format (in fact, for this reason the program was included in the article);
change the file system without data loss (for example, from Fat 32 to Ntfs);
resize partition: very convenient if Windows installation, you, say, have allocated too little space for the system disk, and now you need to increase it from 50 GB to 100 GB. You can format the disk again - but you will lose all the information, and with the help of this function you can change the size and save all the data;
combining hard disk partitions: for example, we divided the hard drive into 3 partitions, and then thought, why? It’s better to have two: one system one for Windows, and the other for files - they took it and combined it and didn’t lose anything;
Disk Defragmenter: useful if you have a Fat 32 file system (with Ntfs - not much point, but at least, you will not gain in performance);
change drive letter;
deleting partitions;
viewing files on disk: useful when you have a file on your disk that is not deleted;
ability to create bootable media: flash drives (the tool will simply save you if Windows refuses to boot).

In general, it is probably unrealistic to describe all the functions in one article. The only drawback of the program is that it is paid, although there is time for a test...

Paragon partition manager

This program is quite well known, I think that experienced users have been familiar with it for a long time. Includes all the most necessary tools for working with media. By the way, the program supports not only real physical disks, but also virtual ones.

Main features:

Using disks larger than 2 TB in Windows XP (with this software you can use larger capacity disks in the old OS);
Ability to control boot of multiple operating systems Windows (very important when you want to install another Windows OS in addition to your first one. For example, to test a new OS before finally switching to it);
Easy and intuitive work with sections: You can easily split or merge the required partition without losing data. In this sense, the program works without any complaints at all ( By the way, it is possible to convert a basic MBR to a GPT disk. Regarding this task, there have been a lot of questions lately. );
Support large number file systems - this means that you can view and work with sections of almost any hard drives;
Work with virtual disks : easily connects a disk to itself and allows you to work with it as with a real disk;
Huge number of backup functions and restoration (also very important), etc.

EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition

Excellent free (by the way, there is also paid version- it implements several additional features. functions) a tool for working with hard drives. Supported OS Windows: 7, 8, 10 (32/64 bits), there is support for the Russian language.

The number of functions is simply amazing, I will list some of them:

support different types storage media: HDD, SSD, USB flash drives, memory cards, etc.;
changing hard disk partitions: formatting, resizing, merging, deleting, etc.;
support for MBR and GPT disks, support for RAID arrays;
support for disks up to 8 TB;
the ability to migrate from HDD to SSD (however, not all versions of the program support);
possibility of creating bootable media etc.

Generally, good alternative paid products presented above. Even functions free version enough for most users.

Aomei Partition Assistant

Another one worthy alternative paid products. Standard version(and it is free) has a bunch of functions for working with hard drives, supports Windows 7, 8, 10, there is a Russian language (although it is not installed by default). By the way, according to the developers, they use special algorithms to work with “problem” disks - so there is a chance that your “invisible” disk in any software will suddenly be seen by Aomei Partition Assistant...

Key Features:

Some of the lowest system requirements(among software of this type): processor with a clock frequency of 500 MHz, 400 MB of hard disk space;
Support for traditional hard drives HDDs, as well as newfangled solid state SSD and SSHD;
Full support for RAID arrays;
Full support for working with HDD partitions: merging, splitting, formatting, changing the file system, etc.;
Support for MBR and GPT disks up to 16 TB in size;
Supports up to 128 disks in the system;
Support for flash drives, memory cards, etc.;
Support virtual disks(for example, from programs such as VMware, Virtual Box, etc.);
Full support for all the most popular file systems: NTFS, FAT32/FAT16/FAT12, exFAT/ReFS, Ext2/Ext3/Ext4.

MiniTool Partition Wizard

MiniTool Partition Wizard is free software for working with hard drives. By the way, it’s not bad at all, which only shows that over 16 million users use this utility in the world!

Peculiarities:

Full support for the following OS: Windows 10, Windows 8.1/7/Vista/XP 32-bit and 64-bit;
Ability to resize partitions, create new partitions, format them, clone, etc.;
Convert between MBR and GPT disks(without data loss);
Support for converting from one file system to another: we're talking about o FAT/FAT32 and NTFS (no data loss);
Backup and recovery of information on disk;
Optimizing Windows for optimal performance and migration to SSD drive(relevant for those who are changing their old HDD drive on the newfangled and fast SSD) etc.;

HDD Low Level Format Tool

This utility does not do much of what the programs listed above can do. In general, it can only do one thing - format the media (disk or flash drive). But it was impossible not to include it in this review...

The fact is that the utility performs low-level formatting of the disk. In some cases, restore performance of hard disk without this operation is almost impossible! Therefore, if no program sees your disk, try HDD Low Level Format Tool. It also helps to delete ALL information from the disk without the possibility of recovery (for example, you do not want someone to be able to restore your files on a sold computer).

In general, I have a separate article about this utility on my blog (which describes all these “subtleties”):

About 10 years ago, by the way, one program was very popular - Partition Magic (it allowed you to format the HDD, split the disk into partitions, etc.). In principle, you can still use it today - only the developers have stopped supporting it and it is not suitable for Windows XP, Vista and higher. On the one hand, it’s a pity when they stop supporting such convenient software...

That's all, good choice!

For all new hard drives, low-level formatting has already been implemented by manufacturers, so it does not require reinitialization. It is unlikely that under normal circumstances you will have to perform this action yourself in practice, since in this type procedures can only be performed by the manufacturer.

Low-level formatting inherently represents initialization and testing of the disk surface, since during this process recording is carried out with a read check in all its sectors. If there are no problems, there is no need to re-inspect and initialize the surface. You can first understand how the formatting process differs in low-level and high level.

Low-level formatting is an operation in which the magnetic surface of the disk is covered with servo marks, which are special information marks used to position the read head. It is produced using special equipment during the physical manufacturing of the hard drive. When you first start this procedure, the plates are completely clean, that is, they do not contain any information at all. The information that is recorded as a result of this process is never changed again.

There are two types of high-level formatting: quick formatting and formatting in normal mode. During a quick format, the device is not checked for bad sectors. In normal mode, it creates a master boot table that contains partitions and the file system structure, installs boot sector, as well as other things. The integrity of the media itself is checked for defective sectors, which are then blocked.

Regarding the term low-level formatting on this moment There are several myths. Although many of them have already been dispelled, there are still problems with formatting old ATA and SCSI drives. There are special programs that can do this. Because the ATA specification was created for specific manufacturer-specific commands, there is a set of special commands for many of these devices that prevent unauthorized formatting. All these commands are created by device manufacturers, so you need to find them before starting the process. Very often they are intended not only for discs from specific manufacturer, and for individual models Winchesters.

Since modern drives are constantly in conversion mode, they are protected from the possibility of changes in the defect map or skew factor. Devices with zone recording properties are in this state constantly, so they are completely protected. For most models there is a special command set used during the formatting process. Some manufacturers offer programs for low-level formatting. It is recommended, first of all, to try out the program offered by the manufacturer, especially since they are all provided for free. If the manufacturer has not released a special program for initialization, then you can use a very convenient Drive app Fitness Test. It copes well with any drive, offering detailed, complete testing of the hard drive.

If you are more concerned about the issue affecting low-level formatting of a flash drive, then the HDD Low Level Format Tool application is perfect for this case. The peculiarity of this program is that it allows you to recover not only flash drives, but also hard disks. This tool is universal. User-friendly interface allows the user to quickly learn the principles of operation and try out low-level

Nowadays, many modern PC users have no idea how often any program for formatting a hard drive has helped in the past. .

After all, hard drives had to be formatted regularly.

Imperfection is to blame software products– both those used for basic user purposes and those used to perform maintenance operations on installed systems.

Background

Another aspect of the need frequent use programs for formatting hard drives - problems with the hardware. Small media volume, frequent hardware errors and the like.

But oddly enough, over time, the need to format disks still remained, even with the advent of modern solid-state drives. The formatting operation has ceased to be an everyday norm, and if you need to hard formatting disk, many users are at a loss as to what and how it can be done.

Fortunately, over time, both the quality of software products designed for formatting hard drives and their number have increased noticeably. And now the user is not limited to built-in system utilities, but has access not just to third-party software products, but to entire sets of software tools that allow you to perform not only formatting, but also several other useful operations, in particular, improving the condition of the hard drive and its service life.

Some of these tools are classified as shareware, some come with free license, and the rest, however, is only available upon purchase. Each of them has its own advantages and we propose to consider several of the most commonly used and popular tools with sufficient functionality.

Paragon Partition Manager Free Edition

A hard drive formatting program called Paragon Partition Manager Free Edition stands out from other similar software products by its ability to perform operations on virtual storage media. In addition, for those who still cannot give up using Windows XP, it will provide the ability to support high-capacity disks of the order of 2 TB or more. But it also works on modern Windows 7 and 8 operating systems.

An additional advantage of this complex is its support for multi-boot management functions. This option will be useful for those who use several operating systems in test mode or simply require their parallel use.

The program interface is quite simple and understandable, and in some cases it is simply irreplaceable. An example of this is the function of merging partitions without losing data, which is especially important when formatting partitions. In this case, the user is given the opportunity to even convert partitions.

As for file systems, the number of them supported is quite large. They can be converted from one to another using this program, in particular, NTFS to HFS.

Among other functionality, there is copying and restoring disks, merging them, moving them and resizing them. And all this in the presence of a Russified shell.

Some may find the defragmentation function in the package superfluous, but protection against system failures and detection bad sectors Absolutely everyone will like it.

Rice. 1 – Paragon Partition Manager window fragment

EASEUS Partition Master

This program for formatting a hard drive has the advantage of having several versions with different functionality. Some of them are free, but special attention ordinary users deserve the Home Edition and Master Free versions.

The program has excellent functionality, accessible through the Russian language shell software. It can work under family control Windows operating systems, in particular, versions 7, 8 and 10, both 32-bit and 64-bit, and some versions allow you to run through Linux.

The software product provides work with a wide range of heterogeneous drives, the most important of which are:

HDDs;
solid state SSD drives;
USB flash drives;
memory cards in various designs.

You can not only format them, but also create or change sections, for example, merging, deleting, copying and resizing.

The program has access to work with RAID arrays and provides user interaction with MBR and GPT. Some operations can be performed using built-in wizards, which greatly facilitates the user’s work.

It is worth paying attention to the fact that each version of the product has its own limitations, in particular on maximum size drive. For example, in the Home Edition it is 8 TB, and in Master Free it is only 4 TB. The user is also recommended to pay attention to the installation process, since unnecessary utilities can be installed along the way.

Rice. 2 – EASEUS window fragment Partition Master

Aomei Partition Assistant

A program for formatting a hard drive called Aomei Partition Assistant is a product that is distributed free of charge, but has decent functionality. It provides a number of functions that are not available to others. free products and therefore belongs to a completely different class.

This software package, like the previous product, has a Russian-language shell and supports modern OS Windows family and Linux and, accordingly, the file systems running under their control: FAT 12/16/32, NTFS, Ext2/3/4, exFAT/ReFS.

In parallel with work on physical media The program also performs operations on virtual disks.

As for the special functionality, it is implemented in the form of access to disks invisible to other software. The program allows you to check them, test them and a number of other useful operations. All this against the backdrop of minimum system requirements, ranging from processor version to volume available memory on disk.

This software product is able to work even under such conditions when the device has 128 disks installed and the volume size is 16 TB. It is also one of the few products that can work with SSHD, flash drives and flash cards. Is it worth mentioning that it supports UEFI Boot, and all operations performed are performed without damaging user information, as assured by the creators?

Rice. 3 – Aomei Partition Assistant Window

MiniTool Partition Wizard

This program for formatting a hard drive is more modest, but much more popular, not only in the domestic space, but throughout the world. It is free and provides interaction under Windows operating systems, including the most latest versions different bit depth, while processing and disk partitions EXT, as well as Linux Swap.

The software interface has a Russified shell and provides work with partitions with a capacity of more than 2 TB. It is quite simple and will be understandable even for a novice user. The functionality of the interface is quite wide and even includes the new-fangled migration from HDD to SSD.

The software product also performs a number of basic operations with disks and their partitions, including their cloning, creation and modification. An additional operation can be considered the conversion of FAT/FAT32 file systems to NTFS while maintaining the integrity of user data, which is complemented by functionality Reserve copy stored information and a data recovery utility after failures. If desired, the user can test their disks by testing their performance.

Like some of the programs described above, this one can convert disks from MBR to GPT, and this is important when a frequently used device wears out. system partition. In parallel with this, it is possible to assign active partitions and interact with them.

Rice. 4 – MiniTool Partition Wizard Window

HDD Low Level Format Tool

This program for formatting a hard drive belongs to a different category than those discussed above software. Therefore, it deserves special attention. This is not a large software package with wide functionality, but a small program that only has the ability to low-level formatting in its set of functions.

This option provides given settings the ability to restore the functionality of storage media. Moreover, this functionality applies to both hard drives and flash drives. The only problem for the user in this case is complete destruction data on the media without the possibility of their further recovery.

Unfortunately, there are no other operations that this product can perform with media.

Rice. 5 – HDD Low Level Format Tool window

Acronis Disk Director

This program for formatting a hard drive is also quite interesting. Its peculiarity is that it can be launched from any media. So, you can install it on a boot disk or flash drive and even without a full-fledged operating system be able to work with disk partitions.

Such functionality is especially important in emergency situations, when it is more important for the user to restore the functionality of the system, and not just create additional section for more convenient storage of data or installation of a game. The program's functionality is suitable for working with disks running both Windows and Linux control. However, this product has one significant drawback, which is noticeable when compared with the above programs is its cost.

In fact, this application belongs to the category of shareware products. After the specified trial period has expired, the user is offered two options - purchase a license or remove the software product. Therefore, it can be safely used and compared with other programs on a free basis, but for a limited period.

Otherwise, this is a full-fledged tool for working with disks and their partitions with wide functionality. It includes all the basic operations for working with partitions, including formatting, and also allows the PC owner to view the information stored on these partitions in a general way.

Rice. 6 – Acronis Disk Director window

Standard Windows OS Tools

When describing programs for formatting disks, one cannot fail to mention standard means operating systems, available to users without downloading third party software. This can be done using the example of operating systems of the Windows family. A special feature of these systems is that they have several tools for working with hard drives and their partitions.

The first tool is quite simple and this utility is available to the user from the Explorer program. In order to use it, for logical hard section disk can be called context menu, and in it select the “Format” item. After this, a form will become available in which you can specify the desired parameters of the formatting operation.

This functionality will be available for all logical disk partitions, except for the active one system disk. In this case, you need to use a slightly different tool, available exclusively from command line. Working with it requires special skills that are only available to experienced users.

Important! To access them you must have boot disk, as well as exhibited in BIOS settings, forcing the PC to boot from removable media, and not from the hard drive, in order to ensure necessary for the system functional. This is provided by a small utility called diskpart. But its main problem is that the user does not receive high-quality visualization of the actions being performed, and any error in their execution can cost the functionality of the system.

This state of affairs forces users to resort to using third-party software products.

Rice. 7 – Formatting utility window

Formatting your hard drive before installing Windows

In the video I will show you how to format a hard drive. This may come in handy when you reinstall operating system Windows.

Good day, glad to see you on my website! Quite today interesting topic, which is relevant and may be needed in the future when using your hard drive, is low-level formatting. For a low-level hard disk format we will use special program.

Why do you need low-level formatting of a hard drive?

So, what is low-level formatting of a hard drive, and why is it needed:

Deleting all information without the possibility of recovery. Attention everything earlier deleted files from the hard drive can most likely be returned, even after normal formatting You can recover photos and other personal documents. Therefore, if you want to sell a hard drive, we recommend doing low-level formatting. To completely remove confidential information without the possibility of recovery.
Marking bad sectors to an unused section. If your hard drive is cracking, is not immediately detected, and is simply glitching, then a low-level format can help you. It will mark bad sectors and they will not be used in the system in the future.
Prevention for buying hard disk, if you recently bought a hard drive, then I recommend that you also make a low-level format.

So we figured out the advantages of this formatting method, but we’ll soon find out how to do it correctly and what program will help us! It doesn’t matter what brand the hard drive is: Seagate, WD, Samsung or any other - low-level formatting is equally successful.

How to find out if it's worth doing

To check and diagnose bad sectors use Victoria program. Using it you can find out about the current state of rigid disk. You can download it.

Attention! If you have one HDD and a system on it, then this operation is dangerous! Up to the point of HDD failure. In details Here.

A program for correct low-level formatting of a hard drive

We will use the program HDD Low Level Format Tool, the name speaks for itself - this program was developed only for low-level formatting of a hard drive under Windows, you can download it below:

The program does not require installation, after launching it it is ready to work, the interface language is in English, but it is very easy to use. I wrote detailed instructions with pictures, so you can definitely figure it out.

1. Launch the program and select the hard drive that needs to be formatted, click "Continue >>>"

2. Go to the second tab "LOW - LEVEL FORMAT", don’t forget to check the box and click "FORMAT THIS DEVICE"

3. A warning will appear stating that all information on the disk will be lost, we agree to the formation.

Attention, do not touch the hard drive during formatting, wait until the end of the operation.