Time to format a 2TB drive?

[Ausm]

I am working an a 8500 core 2 duo system formatting a new 2Tb drive does anyone know how long this will take?

Customer does not want to quick format.

 

[yinan]

Do the quick format. There really is no difference from a use perspective, but it could take a long time.

 

[a123456]

2TB Caviar Green will take ~6-7 hours. 7200rpm drives might be slightly faster. Maybe ~5 hours if I had to guess.

 

[kalrith]

Do the quick format. There really is no difference from a use perspective, but it could take a long time.

Doesn't a full format check the drive for bad sectors? I think that would be a good thing to do at the start before data gets written on those bad sectors. Also, sometimes you just have to give the customer what he wants even if it doesn't make a difference.

 

[Slugbait]

Doesn't a full format check the drive for bad sectors?

Yes. Quick format should only be used if you have already verified the drive does not have bad sectors.

You could do the Quick format, but you should do a chkdsk after the OS is installed, which would take, I dunno...five hours?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302686

 

[Raduque]

I didn't know you could quick format unformatted drives. When I got my 1tb drive, I couldn't quick format it and I had to full format the drive.

 

[RebateMonger]

The Windows installer programs since Win2000 offer the opportunity to Quick Format. The Format command itself offers both "quick" and "full" options.

If you don't have time to wait for a full format, it's pretty low-risk to do a Quick Format for the install of the OS and initial programs then do a chkdsk /r (at the Windows Command Prompt in Administrator mode) when convenient (overnight?) to check the disk for errors. That's what I do when I'm time-limited.

 

[Fox5]

The Windows installer programs since Win2000 offer the opportunity to Quick Format. The Format command itself offers both "quick" and "full" options.

If you don't have time to wait for a full format, it's pretty low-risk to do a Quick Format for the install of the OS and initial programs then do a chkdsk /r (at the Windows Command Prompt in Administrator mode) when convenient (overnight?) to check the disk for errors. That's what I do when I'm time-limited.

Doesn't chkdsk only scan for file system errors, not hardware errors?

 

[GoofyGoofT]

Question I am in the prosess of formatting my new external 2TB hard drive and I am using USB not eSATA. I am 5hr in. how much longer do you think I have I am guessing it will take 28hrs.

 

[mfenn]

Doesn't chkdsk only scan for file system errors, not hardware errors?

When used with the /r option it also checks for bad sectors.

 

[C1]

As I recall, I was able to NTFS format my 2TB Hitachi Deskstar in a few minutes (maybe seven minutes). You dont need to do a surface scan with a new drive unless you suspect a problem. f you suspect a problem then youre probably better off running SeaTools ( 2hrs/300 GB) overnight for a detailed analysis & to be able to remap any bad sectors.

 

[coldpower27]

2TB Caviar Green will take ~6-7 hours. 7200rpm drives might be slightly faster. Maybe ~5 hours if I had to guess.

Wow, I am in for quite a long format time then... won't be done till sometime around 10pm tonight. :S

 

[aigomorla]

i always thought you want to do a full format on new drives so you can check partition heads while its formating.

This way you validate if the drive is bad b4 you start tossing data?

and yes it takes a long ass time.
I have 4 2TB drives, and they were painful each to format.
I just let them run on the server overnight.

 

[coldpower27]

Update... still not done, probably 7:40 in and it's about 40% complete on my 2TB External Drive... sigh...at this rate maybe sometime late tomorrow.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Question I am in the prosess of formatting my new external 2TB hard drive and I am using USB not eSATA. I am 5hr in. how much longer do you think I have I am guessing it will take 28hrs.

3 days at the earliest...

 

[MartySoCal]

I have done an 2TB that completed 3 hours ago and took about 26 hours. I used a USB via docking station, even though it has eSata. Big mistake!

Now I am doing a 2nd drive, connecting it directly inside the PC using SATA and so far, 45 minutes in, it is @ 15%. At this rate, I am expecting 45/.15 = 300 minutes or 5 hours. I will be sound asleep by the time it is done.

____
2TB Drive: SAMSUNG EcoGreen F3 HD203WI 2TB 5400 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Docking Station: KINGWIN EZD-2535 2.5" & 3.5" Black USB2.0 & eSATA Hard Drive Docking Station

 

[corkyg]

Sounds like one of those jobs you start, then go to bed and maybe it will be done when you get up. As drive capacities increase, drive housekeeping becomes more onerous.

 

[nerp]

Best bet is to quick format, install, install apps, config, etc, and once the machine is stable run a surface scan overnight.

 

[Paperdoc]

About a year ago as we built a system we did Full Formats on two 1.5 TB WD Green drives. Each took about 5 hours. So, 2 TB proportionally longer, but Blacks may be faster as others have pointed out.

 

[MartySoCal]

Update: I did a 3rd drive and it took 6hr 39min. It is inside the PC, using SATA. It started out fast (est 5hr) but estimated time increased as time progressed. I had programs running during this time; because this hard drive was formatted while inside PC, this may have slowed the formatting.

All 3 drives are the same. The USB w/docking station took about 4 times longer so SATA wins here.

These Samsung EcoGreen F3 HD203WI 2TB 5400 have a good reputation. Should I run any diagnostics, surface scans etc or just start using them?

Thanks

 

[dawks]

Update: I did a 3rd drive and it took 6hr 39min. It is inside the PC, using SATA. It started out fast (est 5hr) but estimated time increased as time progressed. I had programs running during this time; because this hard drive was formatted while inside PC, this may have slowed the formatting.

All 3 drives are the same. The USB w/docking station took about 4 times longer so SATA wins here.

These Samsung EcoGreen F3 HD203WI 2TB 5400 have a good reputation. Should I run any diagnostics, surface scans etc or just start using them?

Thanks

Really the best thing to do is run spinrite on the drive at level 4. Spinrite will find bad sectors and check them out. its much more comprehensive than chkdsk or 'full format' other than that, just go ahead and start running the drive.

spinrite is the best harddrive maintenance and recovery tool. the author, gibson, recommends running it once on a brand new drive, then a few times a year there after.

 

[mfenn]

Really the best thing to do is run spinrite on the drive at level 4. Spinrite will find bad sectors and check them out. its much more comprehensive than chkdsk or 'full format' other than that, just go ahead and start running the drive.

spinrite is the best harddrive maintenance and recovery tool. the author, gibson, recommends running it once on a brand new drive, then a few times a year there after.

The creator of a product recommends its use? Shocking!

 

[corkyg]

Actually it is a good product. I have used it off and on for nearly 20years. Haven't used it in a while - my current version is 6.0 - it is on a bootable floppy!

 

[hennessy1]

It takes for my 2 2TB drives 4h55m per drive with a sata connection. They are the raid equivelent of the black drives from WD. I usually do a mixture of quick scans and formats along with extended scans and full formats on the drives. Running at least several times from the WD diagnostic utility.

 

[QueBert]

formatting a 2Tb right now using USB, I thought it would be slower, but not that much. The enclosure has ESATA maybe I should cancel the format and restart it using ESATA, ugh.