Should I full format brand new drive before using?

[blackrain]

I just started copying data to a brand new drive. And then I realized that I forgot to format the new drive (which is usually recommended). But I want to know why it is recommended (and if it is really needed or not). Does a full format identify bad sectors? Is the drive not smart enough to figure out if the drive has bad sectors? So, should I clear the drive and full format or not?

 

[corkyg]

A full format for a new drive is recommended to get an accurate map. That is how the drive maps bad sectors if there are any. But, since you have already started filling in data, it should not be a problem. If it runs into a bad sector, it will try, fail, and move on.

 

[blackrain]

I guess I should really do the full format to identify any bad sectors right out of the gate (for warranty/replacement purposes). This is a brand new drive.

 

[Cerb]

Drives handle bad sectors all by themselves. A full format just loads the drive up enough to be sure you don't have a dud from the factory now, rather than finding out shortly after installing everything.

 

[mikeymikec]

I used to full format, then I went to quick format and a full chkdsk at the end of setting the machine up.

It gives the advantage of getting on with the job on hand as well as giving the disk a quick once-over. A lot of the time I start the disk check before I go to bed and have the computer go to sleep mode after the check and the standard amount of idling.

Drives handle bad sectors all by themselves.

I've seen drives handle bad sectors by themselves perhaps on 1% of the occasions that I've seen dodgy disk problems. Admittedly if a drive was doing its job properly in this respect then the process would be without symptoms as far as the user is concerned.

I wonder whether drives handle bad sectors better if they're allowed to idle for longer; it seems to be compatible with my experiences. I've also seen it more often in recent years (possibly because letting the computer go idle then to sleep is more common nowadays).

 

[razel]

The idea with doing a full format is to double check the surface for errors. During regular usage if the drive encounters a 'troublesome' area if there's no data, it'll just flag it as bad and replace it with a good one in reserve. But if there is data, it'll try to read what it can and hopefully throw you an error.

The manufacturer already checks the surface, but of course in retail the drive will get tossed around and man handled. You really don't have much to worry about since the heads are parked and there is usually zero damage. Which is why some recommend to do a full format when new. If there is major damage to the drive, you'll catch it earlier before you write anything to it.

I've been 50/50 on this policy for my portable backup drives. Depending on the size of the drive a full format can take 4+ hours. I just ended up having two rotating backup drives instead. Storage is cheap and fast these days.

 

[Cerb]

I've seen drives handle bad sectors by themselves perhaps on 1% of the occasions that I've seen dodgy disk problems.

If you see any symptoms of anything wrong, the drive is already failing, and it's time for data recovery procedures. HDDs come with bad sectors already re-mapped, and if any develop over time, they remap those. You can check SMART data to see how often this has happened (often 0). As drives have become denser, it has become acceptable--per the manufacturers' ideas of the world, anyway--for some number of sectors to need remapping over the drive's life.

The drive will automatically remap a bad sector to a reserved sector. That doesn't always mean that it can read the sector. if it can, it will move it, and no data will be lost. If not, it hopes that you write to that sector, instead of read, next time, so that it won't have to fail on you. But, it is generally acceptable (as in what's on the spec sheets) for an uncorrectable read to occur somewhere around 1 sector read in every ~12TB, for consumer drives, IIRC. Actual stats of healthy drives are much better than that, of course, every time anyone has measured them (the spec sheets are worst-case).

 

[Elixer]

Drives handle bad sectors all by themselves. A full format just loads the drive up enough to be sure you don't have a dud from the factory now, rather than finding out shortly after installing everything.

Yeah, HD's ride the bell curve, so it is better to 'stress' new HDs than have them fail shortly after purchase...

 

[C1]

Yup, the old "bathtub curve" associated with electronic failure rates.

As a policy, I will be sure to stress a new drive for a number of hours before thinking about discarding any of its packaging. Writing to a drive consumes the most power and thus results in the most heating up of the unit (and thus is considered to be high[est?] on the stress list of activities).

 

[blackrain]

For the sake of stressing the drive, I just returned the data back to its old drive. I am going to format and then bring the data back over again.

 

[Doomer]

I always do a full format on a new drive. It's easier to send it back to the retailer than to send it back to the maker. As an added bonus, you'll get a brand new driver if sent back to the retailer.

 

[Charlie98]

I full-formatted a WD Red I got for my HTPC, it showed a single pending sector... but I didn't really know what that meant and ignored it. About 6 months later I figured it was time to settle the question once and for all... so I zero-filled it and reformatted it, and 8 bad sectors showed up.

WD replaced it (with a 'recertified' drive...) but after this experience I'll always full-format my new drives before putting them in service.

 

[fluffmonster]

Is there anything else you all would recommend for checking a new drive before usage? I just got a couple 3tb drives about to go into the fileserver.

 

[Elixer]

Is there anything else you all would recommend for checking a new drive before usage? I just got a couple 3tb drives about to go into the fileserver.

Well, that depends.
Are you doing active backups ?
If not (but you should), then the only way to really test the HD is write 3TB of data to each drive, then do CRC checks on the data--that is, if you want the highest confidence possible. This takes a very long time though.

If you are doing active backups, then a full format, and maybe some random stress testing is good enough for most people.

And yeah, I know there are some people who just plug it in, and all is well for them for years.