lowlevel formating

[Cook_N]

Ever since I read here about low level formating or zero filling I have been doing so. In the back of my mind I still remember one of the posts saying that it decreases the life of the hard drive. Is this the case and why. BTW I've had better than expected results doing a low level format.

[kendo]

All modern drives employ "embedded servo" head positioning systems, which have made field reformatting of drives both unnecessary and impossible.

The low-level format command in modern drives simply erases the drive's data, but it does not actually re-format the track since doing so would erase the factory servoing and sector relocation information

This information is designed to last the life of the drive and therefore it is not possible to low level the drive outside the factory.

[Germ]

Maxtor has a downloadable utility to do just that with their drives. Does modern mean anything less than a month old?

[surreal]

This makes me think, those programs must only run on the data tracks and outside the permanent data.
But actually don't they just "write" 0's to all the data tracks, that way "cleaning off" all previous data?

One caution as I understand, interrupting the process can cause bad sectors-- And shorten the life of your drive.

[Cook_N]

So I guess there are different definitions of low level formating, I can understand that interupting the process could damage a sector, So to reask the question does low level formating the data portion of a harddrive reduce the life of the hard drive.

[surreal]

I'm not sure that it does, other than if you screw it up!

I always wipe my drive if I need to do a fresh install.

[Cook_N]

Glad to hear that, surreal I do it with our fail. I just wish it didn't take so long. Im running a pretty slow machine Do the newer and faster chips and bus speeds or does it depend on the hd speed