When you are planning to sell your computer or pass it onto someone else, you might not think at first just how harmful that can be. Sure, you may format the hard disk, assuming that all of the data on it is deleted and that no one will be able to retrieve your data.
- HDD Low Level Format Tool is a freeware utility for low-level hard disk drive formatting. Supported interfaces: S-ATA (SATA), IDE (E-IDE), SCSI, USB, FIREWIRE. Big drives (LBA-48) are supported.
- If you use FDISK, FORMAT utilities, or DELETE standard operating system command for data removal, there is always a chance to recover deleted files (using undelete or unformat tools) and use against the owner's will. Wipe your hard drive securely with Active@ KillDisk.
In reality, however, things are a little bit different. When you delete a file or format your hard disk or any other kind of media, you're not actually deleting anything at all.
All formatting a disk or deleting a file does is mark the previously occupied disk space as free space. This means that other data can overwrite it in the future. Eventually, the deleted data will be overwritten so many times that it will become completely irretrievable. One format or deletion is nothing like enough, however.
How to Format a Hard Drive In general, when it comes to formatting hard drive in Windows, there are several ways to complete this task. To be specific, we can turn to Disk Management, DiskPart, third-party tool and others.
When you pass along your computer, hard drive included, you need to make absolutely sure that the disk is completely wiped of any sensitive information. You must wipe hard drive data. These days, we use our computers for many different purposes, including Internet banking and online purchases. This means that you will probably have your financial information stored on the computer.
In addition to that, you likely have plenty of other data stored on your computer which you wouldn't want to fall into the wrong hands. When someone else has access to your hard disk, formatted or not, they can, theoretically, access this data. One does not even have to be particularly computer-savvy to do so. Recovery software designed for getting back deleted data is everywhere these days, and it certainly doesn't take an expert computer user to recover deleted data.
So, what should be done about this problem? Active@ KillDisk is the ultimate solution to properly erase hard drive data, ensuring that no one can ever retrieve your personal or financial information.
If you are selling your computer, hard drive or other storage media, this is absolutely essential. Active@ KillDisk is designed to remove everything. How does it work? It's actually pretty simple.
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All of the data stored on your hard drive is stored in the form of numbers; ones and zeros. Overwriting this digital data once will make it extremely difficult and, in many cases, impossible, to recover the data. Overwriting the old data multiple times makes it completely impossible to recover, even using the most advanced techniques. However, to ensure complete deletion of data, Active@ KillDisk also uses some more advanced methods to erase hard drive and other data.
The program supports many security standards from many different countries, including the US DoD 5220.22-M standard. The program will display information about your hard disk and all of its partitions. It also works with other media such as floppy disks, USB drives and other flash media. It can erase all partitions, including any hidden partitions which don't show up in your operating system.
Once the job is done, Active@ KillDisk will provide a detailed report showing you what has been accomplished. The software works with all versions of Windows and you can also create a bootable disk to use with your computer. If you want to secure your old data and get rid of it for good, Active@ KillDisk is here to help!
Knowledge About Low-Level Format (LLF)
Hard Disk Low Level Format Tool
Low-level formatting is recognized as one of the three disk formatting processes, the rest of which are partitioning and high-level formatting.
By wiki's explanation, low-level formatting marks the surfaces of the disks with markers indicating the start of a recording block and other information like block CRC to be used later, in normal operations, by the disk controller to read or write data. This is intended to be the permanent foundation of the disk and is often completed at the factory.
Pros
Low-level formatting is extremely helpful and significant when hard disk drive or some removable storage devices developed bad tracks, such as track 0 bad, or Windows was unable to complete the format due to write protection. Besides, severe computer virus infection.
Cons
Low-level formatting does damage to the hard drive and accelerates its death. What's more, it's incredibly time-consuming. It is estimated that low-level format a hard drive of 320GB takes about 20 hours or even longer.
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Approaches
Do you know how many ways of low-level formatting a hard drive? In conclusion, there are three typical approaches, including DOS command, inbuilt disk utility of disc or USB drive, and third-party low-level format tool.
Best Low-Level Format Tool
Here comes to the crucial part, what's the best low-level format tool that facilitates a low-level formatting manner? Regardless of 5-star reviews from CNet download site, HDD Low Level Format Tool from HDDGURU receives positive feedbacks from personal/home users as well as commercial/professional users, which both promote it as the best low level format software for the most popular hard drive brands, like Seagate, Samsung, Western Digital, Toshiba, Maxtor, etc.
By using the HDD Low-Level Formatting tool, the low-level formatting shall become easier and faster. Even a computer novice could make full use of it. It can erase and low-level format a SATA, IDE, SAS, SCSI or SSD hard disk drive, and will also work with any USB and firmware external drive enclosures as well as SD, MMC, MemoryStick and CompactFlash media.
Simply follow the guide to low-level format an entire drive:
Step 1: Google 'HDD Low-Level Format', pick up an official site or CNET download site to download and install it on PC.
Step 2: Plug your HDD or USB drive into the computer and launch the low-level format tool.
Step 3: Select the desired drive and click Continue. Confirm the option by clicking Yes.
Step 4: Select 'Low-Level Format' in Tab to start the low-level formatting process.
How to Use HDD, USB Drive or Memory Card After Low-Level Formatting
The purpose of complete low-level formatting of a hard drive is to zero-filling it so that erased data can never be restored. So, behave cautiously while choosing this type of formatting process.
It didn't finish yet after low-level format your hard drive as long as you decide to put it in normal use. For your information, the low-level format is the previous action before the high-level one. In other words, only by high-level formatting, you can use the drive for data storage after performing a low-level format.
Hence, take one more step after using the best low-level format tool to bring your troublesome hard drive back to its life. You need EaseUS free partition manager to format your hard drive with a file system, such as NTFS or FAT32, to make it usable on a specific device.
Step 1: Run EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the hard drive partition you intend to format and choose 'Format'.
Step 2: In the new window, set the Partition label, File system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and Cluster size for the partition to be formatted, then click 'OK'.
Step 3: Then you will see a warning window, click 'OK' in it to continue.
Step 4: Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting the partition on your hard drive.
By combining both low-level format and high-level format, your hard drive can be perfectly put in use even after experiencing a dead moment. By the way, apart from disk formatting, EaseUS Partition Master offers more hard drive management solutions, such as disk partitioning, disk wipe, etc.