[poseidon]

Hi all,

You may think this an odd question but I would be interested in the answer.

Does the Hard Drive depreciate the more it is formatted?

If so, does anyone have any idea about approximately how may formats are needed before it depreciates beyond use?

Thanks in anticipation.

Poseidon

[cajalat]

Absolutely in theory. But not for the reasons you may think. In practice HD ware and tear will result due to mechanical than electronic reasons. So "formatting" a drive has mechanical and electronic components to that function. The electronic component whereby you "erase" the data has far less ware and tear than the mechanical component of spinning the drive and moving the arm back and forth. So keeping that in mind, the spinning portion will happen at a constant rate regardless of whether you format. So that portion of formatting doesn't really add any more or less to the life of the drive. That part is driven by time alone. The other part is the arm movement. In normal operation the arm moves in a seemingly erratic pattern depending on what information is being read or written. During a format, the arm is less erratic in its movement and tends to move from cylinder to cylinder starting from one side and finally ending at the other end. Less movement of the arm contributes to longer life.

Now having said all of that... you should format your drive constantly to get the most out of it :D (I'm kidding of course).

Seriously though, what you should be looking at is the MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) numbers of the drive, the reputation of the manufacturer, other people's experiences, etc. The HD manufacturers do extensive and rigorous tests on drives and come up with MTBF numbers that should give you a good starting point for comparison and life expectancy of your drive.

Hope that helps.

Casey

[fredg]

Hi,
Here is a link showing some pictures of the inside of a hard drive, showing the arms and heads, just one example:
http://www.ntfs.com/hard-disk-basics.htm
A hard drive is a mechanical device, and is subject to wear and tear. Just how long a hard drive will last is up in the air.
Some years ago, I bought a new Gateway computer. The hard drive begin having unusual noises coming from it, and shortly after, (just 2 years old), stopped working. The replacement has been working great now for 4 years.
Yes, the more it's formatted, the more the arms and heads work, and does cause some deterioration in the drive; as Defragging does also.
The extent of the deterioration is up for different opinions. It's like driving a car. One driven 50,000 miles a year will normally, need repairs faster that one driven only 20,000 miles a year.

[jawsman]

It shouldn't depreciate, but you will lose storage each time.

[cajalat]

Can you explain what you mean by that? How do you lose storage every time you format?

[ScottGem]

When you format a drive part of the process is to check for bad sectors. Bad sectors are areas of a drive that have have lost enough of their magnetic charge that they may no longer be stable enough to hold the positive or negative charge that corresponds to the 0s and 1s of the binary system. When that charge becomes unstable, the sector is marked as bad so it will not be used.

Bad sectors are not uncommon. It is possible, that, in reformatting, you get some additional bad secotrs thereby reducing the amount of available space.

[cajalat]

Hi Scott,

Sectors are indeed marked bad during a format IF there are bad sectors that happened from the last format (or ScanDisk or equiv). What I was questioning was the statement that "everytime" a format is done you lose storage.

Casey

[ScottGem]

Casey,
True, its unlikely to be every time. I was just explaining (and I knew you knew about bad sectors) why the amount of space MIGHT diminish.