Formatting

Formatting  Back   Disk formatting is the process of preparing a hard disk or other storage medium for use by an operating system or a user. Formatting essentially creates the file system structure that the operating system requires for data to be stored on the medium, and may also write other information to the storage medium, such as a boot sector. There are many different file systems, such as FAT, FAT32, NTFS, HFS, ext2, ext3, UFS and so on.

Function

Formatting a hard drive completely purges your system of all pre-existing files and installs new system files to replace the old ones. Any pictures, documents, program or settings you had in place before formatting your hard drive will be erased. After the hard drive has finished formatting, you computer will have the same content it did when it was new.

Considerations

There are several reasons why you might consider formatting your hard drive: to get rid of corrupted or damaged files that may be slowing your computers performance; to replace missing or incomplete system files; to purge all spyware, adware and malware; to clears up free space; or to prepares the computer for resale.

Effects

The biggest effect of reformatting your hard drive is the loss of all of your personal files. Since a reformat virtually wipes your hard drive clean, you will not be able to retrieve anything that was previously saved on the hard drive. However, there are several positive reasons for formatting your hard drive, including getting rid of harmful programs and restoring missing or damaged system files.

Benefits

After formatting your hard drive, the most noticeable benefit will be your computer's run time. It will run noticeably faster because the hard drive will be completely empty save for system folders. This frees up your RAM and cuts down the wear and tear on your processor.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt;">Warning

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 115%;">Because reformatting your hard drive will remove all of your personal files, it is important to back up files that you would like to keep before attempting this process. You can back up these files on an external hard drive or a virtual server.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">A formatting of a disk involves two quite different processes that have come to be known as "low-level formatting" and "high-level formatting." Low-level formatting deals with formatting of disk surfaces required by the disk controller hardware. High-level formatting deals with software-specific information written by a specific operating system. Low level formatting is done by the hard drive vendor. High level formatting is done when the OS is installed.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">To make a low level formatting (Quick ), here is a video that illustrates practically how to make it in Windows Vista or 7. media type="file" key="How to format your hard drive in windows vista or windows 7.flv" align="center" width="360" height="270"

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Any installation for any opertating system include full formatting and partition for the hard drive. Here are the steps of making formatting and clean install of Windoes 2000/XP step by step.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">To begin the installation of Windows 2000 / XP, you will need to insert the bootable Windows CD into the CD drive. If you are installing from floppies, insert the first floppy into drive A:. Turn the system on.One of the first things you will see during the installation process is “Press F6 if you need to install additional drivers…” The message only appears for 6 seconds before the installation continues. You will need to press F6 to load additional drivers if you are using a SCSI controller card, a SATA controller card, or a RAID controller card that is not natively supported by Windows. Check with your controller card manufacturer for the latest drivers. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Press "S" to specify the driver for the controller card.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">You are now presented with 3 options. For the purpose of this guide, press Enter.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Before you can install the operating system you must press F8 and agree to the license agreement. In order to install an operating system, you will need a partition on which to install. If a partition does not already exist, you must create one. To do this, highlight the "Unpartitioned Space" and press "C", for Create.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Enter the capacity you want for the new partition and press Enter. If you want to use the entire space of the drive, press Enter without making any changes.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">You will now be brought back to the screen which previously showed the "Unpartitioned Space" taking up the whole drive. Now, it shows it as Partition1[New <RAW>] (this means it has not yet been formatted). To continue with the installation process and format the drive, highlight the new partition and press Enter.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">You will be given format options for the partition: NTFS, NTFS (Quick), FAT, and FAT (Quick). Only Windows XP gives the Quick format options. If the partition is larger than 32GB's, you must choose NTFS. *WARNING* Formatting will delete all data from the drive.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">The installation will now begin formatting the drive to your specifications. Depending on the size of the partition, this could take anywhere from 2 minutes to over an hour to format. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">To know about formatting and installing Windows 7, here is a very useful video for that. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">

media type="file" key="Formatting and Clean Install of Windows 7.flv" width="360" height="270" align="center"

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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 14pt;">Summary

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Formatting is a process that prepares a hard drive or other type of storage devices for use by an operating system or a user. The most important function of the formatting is that it cleans up our system of all old files and installs new system files to be instead of old ones. Therefore, anything was saved in the drive will be erased. We need to consider formatting our hard drives for several reasons like getting rid of files that may slow the computer performance and also delete all malwares and spywares. After formatting we will notice the benefit of it. The most noticeable benefit is running the computer much faster because the hard drive will be totally empty. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">There are two different processes that format a disk: low level formatting and high level formatting. Low level formatting is used to format the disk surface that is required by the disk controller hardware; and it done by the hard drive vendor. High level formatting is for software-specific information written by a specific operating system; and it done when the OS is installed <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Resource

[|**http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Disk_format**]

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[|**http://www.mhsv.org/computer-information/guide-to-computer-forensics/ntfs.html**]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">partitioning_and_Formatting_Guide.pdf

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">CISCO Networking Academy Program Website