Windows 10: Win10x64 1803: Full Format of Hard Drives Faulty?

A few days back I got a slew of disk errors in Event Viewer and quickly backed up the drive in question and started testing it. Before that, I checked and the only errors in the SMART data were crc errors, which do not normally indicate a failing drive, especially in the absence of other errors.

Using the drive manufacturer's utility when booting from a pendrive:
-I tested the disk surface and found 1 bad sector and quite a few slow-read spots.
-I performed a write-erase.
-I then tested the disk again with various tools. All good.
-I quick-formatted the drive with a utility and tested again. For hours. All good.
-I then formatted the drive using Disk Management and selected a full format.
-The drive then miserably failed all testing right off the bat.

This made me think I had botched the repairs and/or had a truly faulty drive, since a full format is supposed to test for and mark bad sectors and ready the disk for use.

Not one to give up, I repeated the above process with a variety of very similar tools. Each time, all testing goes fine if I do not perform a full format using Disk Management. Raw, with no partition, partitioned but not formatted, or quick-formatted, surface reads and writes are as flawless as a normal drive gets unless I use a full format. Hmmm.

Since I have another drive of the same make, model, and purchase date, used in the same machine, I decided to back it up and test it, fearing the worst. Note that this drive had shown no errors of any kind, ever. Initial testing was flawless. After a write-erase and full reformat, the exact same issue has appeared: full formats lead to countless bad sectors.

I do not have a final conclusion at this juncture. I have the two drives (quick format only) now hooked up and operating, reporting good SMART data and passing tests, and no disk read errors showing up in Event Viewer. However, I thought I might share this experience to see what others might have to say, and if indeed there is something botched in this release of Windows 10, give a heads-up. I'll post more as new data comes in.

:)

 

How To Format A Write Protected Flash Memory ?

¿You already tried this one?...

Run CMD


1. diskpart
2. list disk

Then in the 3º step, put the correct number of disk in the list for the usb flash (if it's listed in disk 3, then you'll have to write select disk 3).

2. select disk #
3. clean
4. create partition primary
5. select partition 1
6. active
7. format fs=fat32
8. assign
9. exit

with that commands you will format the flash drive in fat32, if you have a large drive you can select also "format fs=ntfs" in step 7.

good luck!

 

want to Format a La Cie External Drive Because the Software Genie 9 has too many versions of backup.

Hello,

To format an external USB or an external hard drive you can easily do it by accessing Computer Management. For us to assist you, we suggest that you follow the steps listed below:

• Press the Start button.
• Type Computer Management.
• On the left side, click on Disk Management under Storage.
• Locate the drive that you want to format.
• Once located, right-click on the drive and choose Format.

If the hard drive has not been formatted with the steps that we have provided above, we recommend that you contact the manufacturer of your hard drive. Some hard drive requires a software that you'll need to use just to format it.

Let us know how it goes and if you need further assistance, feel free to post back.

 

Hard Drive formatting

I beg to differ!!!! DO NOT DO A QUICK FORMAT !!! Quick Formatting is fine for a floppy drive but not for an OS hard drive! My opinion and we can be ok with different opinions right ?