Hard Drive Formatting - Low Level Format

Good evening,

Please can someone advise of the actions taken when a low level format is completed.

eg does this wipe the hard drive of data and when the o/s is re-installed its like its brand new out of the box?

I have read in other posts that when formatting the hard drive it prefixes the original files with "0"s and moves their location on the hard drive meaning they are never fully deleted and pose a risk of file being recovered in the future.

Please can someone clarify

Thanks and Regards

Ashley

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Mar 23, 2011 1:48 PM

21 replies

gumsie

Level 4

2,185 points

Mar 27, 2011 1:42 AM in response to Linc Davis

Exactly what I do. Yep, call me paranoid but I keep a bare OS on an extra drive. If I have a hardware failure that requires service, I shut down, take out the drives with my data on them and fit this single drive on its own.
I then Option boot and choose this as start up drive. The technician can now feel free to peruse nothing at all.

R C-R

Level 6

17,794 points

Mar 27, 2011 4:21 AM in response to ashtrinder

Read the instructions carefully. Step 3 creates the partition map, the volume scheme, the directory structures, & so on -- basically all the high level formatting necessary to use the drive with Mac OS X. This is all done in Disk Utility's "Partition" tab.

In step 4, you select the "Erase" tab, but in that & subsequent steps you are not erasing the formatting or the partition, just any data within the partition you created in step 3 that might remain there from previous use of the drive.

A regular erase really only deletes the directory entry for the file but not the file's data, which is stored separately from the directory elsewhere on the drive. A secure erase both deletes the directory entry & writes over the file's data with a new data pattern like all zeros so that software that ignores the directory & looks for old data just finds that pattern, no matter where it looks.

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Mar 23, 2011 7:55 PM in response to R C-R

What's outdated? And, I clarified that you cannot low-level format a SATA drive. You have provided a lot of information, but most of it is of no use to the OP and simply over-complicates everything.

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Mar 23, 2011 8:17 PM in response to Barney-15E

My point exactly.

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Mar 26, 2011 9:17 PM in response to ashtrinder

I'm not sure why you think I suggested creating a partition then deleting it. Please tell me where you think I implied that..

ashtrinder Author

Level 1

1 points

Mar 27, 2011 1:21 AM in response to Kappy

Hi Kappy,

On your previous post on drive preparation, numbers 4 to 6 imply that's what I need to do.

Ashley

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Hard Drive Formatting - Low Level Format