HDD Format
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HDD Format
Hi Everyone!
Does formatting a drive too much or just formatting in general shorten a HDD's life? Does it impact on the wear and tear of the drive?
Thank-You!
Regards,
Karim
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
Karim
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
I'd say that excessive formatting (like multiple times a day, everyday for years) would have a negative impact on the drive mechanically. Having said that though, full formatting is nothing other than writing to a drive and a quick format just marks utilized space as being available, so in the normal course of events, it's unlikely that formatting in itself will damage a drive.
The MTBF (mean time between failure) of most hard drives is something like a million hours and like I said, formatting represents standard usage of a drive.
What is the reason for your question by the way?
Turning a drive on and off will tend to be worse for a drive than just leaving it on all the time or off all the time. Reading and writing generally isn't an issue with drive lifespans unless it's a heavily used disk (network storage)
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