Format Low Level

[jabakus]

Hi,
I have an HP DV6-6B56EL with a 500 GB disk HITACHI HT5547550A9E384, with windows 7 pro 64 bit on board.
I want to format low level the system disk, but I've seen that HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool is a win32 tool; What can I start this tool if it cannot run by command DOS? I cannot select the C: disk (obviously) from the screen in graphics mode, with the operative system on.
Thank you in advance.
Luca

[loki]

Hi,
I have an HP DV6-6B56EL with a 500 GB disk HITACHI HT5547550A9E384, with windows 7 pro 64 bit on board.
I want to format low level the system disk, but I've seen that HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool is a win32 tool; What can I start this tool if it cannot run by command DOS? I cannot select the C: disk (obviously) from the screen in graphics mode, with the operative system on.
Thank you in advance.
Luca

Guess you dont need the data then.


If you have a win7 setup cd then boot to that & then > repair > command prompt
try using diskpart

list disk
select disk 0
list disk
clean all (this will overwrite the sectors on the hard drive)

or take the hard drive out, connect it to another pc either via usb or directly & run a full format in vista or wint7 (not a quick format) on the correct drive

or download a ubuntu boot cd, boot to that & then wipe the drive

There are lots of ways & Google has the answer

loki

[jabakus]

Hi,
I have an HP DV6-6B56EL with a 500 GB disk HITACHI HT5547550A9E384, with windows 7 pro 64 bit on board.
I want to format low level the system disk, but I've seen that HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool is a win32 tool; What can I start this tool if it cannot run by command DOS? I cannot select the C: disk (obviously) from the screen in graphics mode, with the operative system on.
Thank you in advance.
Luca

Guess you dont need the data then.


If you have a win7 setup cd then boot to that & then > repair > command prompt
try using diskpart

list disk
select disk 0
list disk
clean all (this will overwrite the sectors on the hard drive)

or take the hard drive out, connect it to another pc either via usb or directly & run a full format in vista or wint7 (not a quick format) on the correct drive

or download a ubuntu boot cd, boot to that & then wipe the drive

There are lots of ways & Google has the answer

loki

I didn't know that diskpart has the "clean all" option! Thanks a lot! I solved the issue starting with a linux live CD and using the command: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512
Bye
Luca

[Vulcan]

I solved the issue starting with a linux live CD and using the command: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512

Glad you solved your issue, using the suggestion of a Linux bootable CD from loki.

FYI for next time - you don't need to match the bs (block size) to the drive sector size in this situation (and the default blocksize used by dd is 512 bytes anyway). In my experience, on modern systems and modern disks, the overwriting process will be much quicker (for a couple of reasons) when specifying a larger bs value instead e.g. bs=1M (it's usually not worth spending time doing experiments to find the optimal "sweetspot" for the dd throughput on an individual system, compared to just using a 1MB bs parameter, as that is close enough to the sweetspot on typical current systems I see).

[jabakus]

I solved the issue starting with a linux live CD and using the command: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512

Glad you solved your issue, using the suggestion of a Linux bootable CD from loki.

FYI for next time - you don't need to match the bs (block size) to the drive sector size in this situation (and the default blocksize used by dd is 512 bytes anyway). In my experience, on modern systems and modern disks, the overwriting process will be much quicker (for a couple of reasons) when specifying a larger bs value instead e.g. bs=1M (it's usually not worth spending time doing experiments to find the optimal "sweetspot" for the dd throughput on an individual system, compared to just using a 1MB bs parameter, as that is close enough to the sweetspot on typical current systems I see).

Ok, so 1M is the best value to set in this case, I register your suggestion Could you explain to me what does "sweetspot" mean?
Thanks a lot. (Sorry but my english is poor...)

[Vulcan]

Ok, so 1M is the best value to set in this case, I register your suggestion

I am not saying that bs=1M is the best (i.e. quickest dd speed), but in my experience it is usually close enough to the best, that it is not worth spending lots of time doing detailed tests to find the exact best (quickest) bs value instead. My point is that to help you (and others) in a future similar situation, using bs=1M will be much quicker than using bs=512.

Could you explain to me what does "sweetspot" mean?

I should probably write it as "sweet spot" or "sweet-spot" i.e. two separate words, sorry. In this context, it means the optimal, or most efficient, or most favorable value. I believe the "sweet spot" metaphor originally came from sports bats. Hope that helps.

[jabakus]

Ok, so 1M is the best value to set in this case, I register your suggestion

I am not saying that bs=1M is the best (i.e. quickest dd speed), but in my experience it is usually close enough to the best, that it is not worth spending lots of time doing detailed tests to find the exact best (quickest) bs value instead. My point is that to help you (and others) in a future similar situation, using bs=1M will be much quicker than using bs=512.

Could you explain to me what does "sweetspot" mean?

I should probably write it as "sweet spot" or "sweet-spot" i.e. two separate words, sorry. In this context, it means the optimal, or most efficient, or most favorable value. I believe the "sweet spot" metaphor originally came from sports bats. Hope that helps.

Perfect! Thank you.