hdd formatter

[DaMummy]

just need some basic input, since ive never really needed to format HDDs to anything specific like i always have with nand and sd cards, and since i use panasonic sdformatter for those, whats a good one for hdd's?

 

[b1ueskycomp1ex]

just need some basic input, since ive never really needed to format HDDs to anything specific like i always have with nand and sd cards, and since i use panasonic sdformatter for those, whats a good one for hdd's?

If you're talking about formatting a USB Harddrive, windows should be able to do this with the right-click menu on the drive in my computer.


If you're running windows vista/7 you can use it's built-in disk partitioner which you can get to easily by typing "Disk Management" into the start button search bar.


You can also use the PartEd Magic live linux CD, which contains the required utilities to partition a harddrive. Most other linux live CDs also have formatting tools.

 

[DaMummy]

ya but im trying to stay away form using windows stuff, theres gotta be better stuff out there. windows can also format sd cards, but panasonic sdformatter is much better

 

[Christoph.Krn]

ya but im trying to stay away form using windows stuff, theres gotta be better stuff out there. windows can also format sd cards, but panasonic sdformatter is much better

That's because Panasonic is one of the creators of the SD standard, the Panasonic formatter is the official SD formatter of the SD Card Association.


Since you're using the Panasonic SD formatter, for now I assume you're going to format your HDD to NTFS or any kind of FAT. For this, the best way would probably be to do so using Microsoft software.

 

[gruso]

My understanding is that SD cards, due to the technology they use, require more than the regular Windows format to get the job done properly. The Windows formatting tool is designed for HDDs, so it's not the best tool for SDs, but it's the right tool for the HDD job.


If you really want to use better tools, Paragon Partition Manager (I believe it has a 30day trial), or boot from an Ubuntu / other distro live CD and use gparted. The real strength of these tools is their ability to work with partitions 'live' though*, and I don't know if they offer any formatting advantages if you're just going to do the whole drive at once.


* For example, on the weekend I decided to make my 16GB SDHC card bootable for the Pandora. It was already formatted FAT32, and had about 8GB of content on it. Using gparted, I was able to allocate 4GB of the free space to a new Ext2 partition, without disturbing any of the existing data on the card. Later on I changed my mind ^__^, deleted the Ext2 partition and restored the card to a full 16GB of FAT32. Again, without upsetting any of the data on the card. Take that, Windows.

 

[Christoph.Krn]

My understanding is that SD cards, due to the technology they use, require more than the regular Windows format to get the job done properly. The Windows formatting tool is designed for HDDs, so it's not the best tool for SDs, but it's the right tool for the HDD job.

I guess the difference could be that once the SD card's controller is confused by all all the data it had to manage thus far, it has to be reset in order to restore full functionality, but that's just a guess and I don't know this for sure at all. However, from what I know about flash based memory this is likely, and it would mean that the file system would be the most important thing to handle right when formatting HDDs. Which would mean that...

If you really want to use better tools, Paragon Partition Manager (I believe it has a 30day trial), or boot from an Ubuntu / other distro live CD and use gparted.

...I really doubt that they're the better (or less dirty) solution, at least if we're talking about NTFS here.

The real strength of these tools is their ability to work with partitions 'live' though*, and I don't know if they offer any formatting advantages if you're just going to do the whole drive at once.

* For example, on the weekend I decided to make my 16GB SDHC card bootable for the Pandora. It was already formatted FAT32, and had about 8GB of content on it. Using gparted, I was able to allocate 4GB of the free space to a new Ext2 partition, without disturbing any of the existing data on the card. Later on I changed my mind ^__^, deleted the Ext2 partition and restored the card to a full 16GB of FAT32. Again, without upsetting any of the data on the card. Take that, Windows.

Sorry, but - I don't get why everybody seems to think that everyone at Microsoft is stupid. They have some of the best people you can get. Microsofts problem is that they still can't manage the vast amount of knowledge all these people have. Also, Microsoft often ends up breaking otherwise clever designs on purpose so as to keep compatibility (in order to avoid losing market share) or for legacy reasons (like old, poorly written code that has problems inherent to its bad design). And they're regularly setting wrong priorities, even knowingly making UAC(!) an insecure design.


With that being said, it is possible to shrink and expand basic volumes using Windows Vista or Windows 7. In theory, Windows is also capable of replacing files while they are in use, but Microsoft decided to not allow that in order to avoid problems. Of course it's Microsoft we're talking about here, so don't expect any love for ext (or any other filsystems other than NTFS).


PS: And no, Microsofts software is NOT less secure than Apples software is.

 

[gruso]

I didn't say anything like "Microsoft is stupid". I just shared a little anecdote about SD card partitioning, which you'll agree, could not be done in Windows.


I tried Win7's partition shrinking once by the way, so I could set up a dual boot on a single HDD. It wouldn't let me shrink the partition because certain Win7 system files were positioned near the end of the drive, and were unmoveable. :rolleyes: A third party hack fixed it. :/


I'm not a Windows hater though. If I could find a Linux desktop that offered the same balance of looks and speed that XP does, I'd be in heaven.

 

[Christoph.Krn]

I didn't say anything like "Microsoft is stupid". I just shared a little anecdote about SD card partitioning, which you'll agree, could not be done in Windows.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply you were saying that. It's just that I experience this all too often.

I tried Win7's partition shrinking once by the way, so I could set up a dual boot on a single HDD. It wouldn't let me shrink the partition because certain Win7 system files were positioned near the end of the drive, and were unmoveable. :rolleyes: A third party hack fixed it. :/

Now that sounds like Microsoft. I'm curious if you've tried defragmenting the partition using Windows' defragmentation software (I guess so).

I'm not a Windows hater though. If I could find a Linux desktop that offered the same balance of looks and speed that XP does, I'd be in heaven.

This is getting a bit off-topic, but I think Arch Linux with LXDE is something you might like.

 

[gruso]

Ah, you jogged my memory regarding defragging. Windows defrag wouldn't move the files, and the 'hack' I mentioned was no hack, but another defragging utility. It was a while ago, and I can't remember what it was. When my Win7 RC expired I just started fresh with Ubuntu.


I've actually got my eye on Arch Linux. I'm going to inherit my sister's laptop soon (no she's not going to die, she's just getting a Macbook), so I think I'll test the waters on that. Ubuntu 10.04 is very nice, but also rather fat and slow!

 

[DaMummy]

holy crap you two, get a room!

 

[gruso]

I think what we got out of this was, use Windows to format your HDD.

 

[Prometheus]

Ubuntu 10.04 is very nice, but also rather fat and slow!

Xubuntu 10.04 is nice and nippy, though.


[/off-topic]

 

[maplesugarlover]

What about linux mint?

 

[Christoph.Krn]

Xubuntu 10.04 is nice and nippy, though.


[/off-topic]

Xubuntu uses Xfce, which is not actually that much faster compared to Gnome and KDE. LXDE on the other hand consists of a handful of small, already existing implementations for various things, adding some own fast elements to the mix.


Also, Xubuntu still has the Ubuntu substructure, there is not that much of a difference. Arch Linux' philosophy is KISS ("Keep it simple, stupid"), in other words, simple and elegant implementations are to be preferred over fat and feature-blown ones.


I'm often using Arch Linux with LDXE or Ubuntu with the awesome window manager. awesome is very fast, but it is quite different from what you're used to from XP and might not suit your preferences. Also, Ubuntu is just big. LXDE and Arch Linux are a nice and fast team that I really like.


Maybe it's a good idea to put this into another thread. Gruso?

I think what we got out of this was, use Windows to format your HDD.

We would need more information from DaMummy to say this for sure. After all, we can't be sure that his (her?) situation is about formating with NTFS.

 

[Prometheus]

Xubuntu uses Xfce, which is not actually that much faster compared to Gnome and KDE.

I can only comment on my own machine, from which I recently threw out Kubuntu 8.04 with KDE 3.x, and installed Xubuntu 10.04 with Xfce 4. It is much faster on that same machine. Seriously. There are even things that barely ran before, and they now do. Can't fault it.


Anyway, I'm not disputing that other stuff is faster, I was just making a note that whilst Ubuntu and Kubuntu 10.04 are a bit sluggish, as Gruso noted, Xubuntu isn't.


[/off-topic again]

 

[b1ueskycomp1ex]

ya but im trying to stay away form using windows stuff, theres gotta be better stuff out there. windows can also format sd cards, but panasonic sdformatter is much better

.... what part of "Linux live CD" sounds like "Microsoft Windows"?