Need to Format Target Drive for Cloning Purposes?

[ontariotech]

Lets say you have two drives

Drive A - You want to Copy

Drive B - Target Disk. Brand new disk. Unformatted.

Do you have to format the target drive (drive B) in order for the clone process to be successful?

[jono-ats]

Most new drives have FFs or 00s written on them.

But to be safe, and as a matter of standard procedure, ANY drive that is the clone target should be SECURE ERASED first!

[dobrevjetser]

No, not neccessary. ALL data is overwritten anyway (except for bad sectors, but these can be overwritten too if cloning device/software if properly configured).
New disks are (supposed to be)clean.
Only when you use an old disk you should wipe it, reformatting is not neccessary.


Dobre

[jono-ats]

Dobre,

We disagree.

I think you want to eliminate any possibility of cross-contamination of data. Better to be 100% certain than take chances, in my opinion . . .

Jono

[dobrevjetser]

Well, jono, as i wrote, a new disk is supposed to be clean.
But as we all know there are some people out there that try to be smart and sell old/refurb/tampered disks as new.
So, i agree, as a precaution wipe ALL disks before use.

Dobre

[pcimage]

Neat feature in the Deepspar imagers I use, an option after the clone to erase all uncloned sectors on the target and set the HPA to match the patient.

I always do this to eliminate all possibilities of cross contamination.

[pepe]

I fill destination drives with a pattern. So it is safe and easy to locate unread parts if there are any...

pepe