Re: Can I resell XP computers in my consignment shop without COA?

John John (MVP) wrote:
No, it's for unconditional. FORMAT a: /u

Oh, OK.

I beleive that doing a full
format on a floppy does the same thing, but these things don't apply to
hard disks.

Does the same thing as what?
As I said (but I could be wrong), I believe that a FULL format on a floppy
DOES write out zeroes (or whatever; maybe it's FFs), throughout the entire
disk, so that it would be impossible to recover anything, afterwards. (I'm
talking only about floppies here, and using the full (not quick) format).


Bill in Co. wrote:

1) The /u is for unformat?
2) I had thought that once a floppy was formatted (full format), it did
write out zeroes, but you didn't address that. (But I understand that
this
doesn't apply to HDs, however.

John John (MVP) wrote:

With floppies you can use the /u switch, the switch does nothing with
hard drives.

John

Bill in Co. wrote:


Somewhat relatedly (but a bit tangential):

I thought if you formatted a 3.5 inch floppy, however, using the FULL
format
option, it DID write all zeroes to the disk. Is that not correct?
(I'm
just talking about floppies)

John John (MVP) wrote:


There is nothing "definitely ridiculous" about this, none of the NT
format utilities have ever written zeros to the hard disk and there is
absolutely no need to zero fill a hard disk when it is formated. What
was done on the old Atari 800 8-bit is completely irrelevant, there
were
no 250 or 500GB hard disks around in the Atari 800 days! If you want
to
zero fill a hard disk the format utility is not the right tool to use.
The format utility can scan the disk for bad sectors without having to
zero fill the drive. If you want to wipe a drive then use a wiping
utility and then wait for a day and a half while the utility fills
your
500GB drive with zeros! Even wiping a small 40GB drive (by today's
standards) takes quite a bit of time, there is no need to bog down the
formatting process with this unnecessary step.

John

Charles Lee wrote:



Thats slightly bobvious the no OS needs zero's... but....

even on an old Atari 800 8-bit, all sectors were written to with
zero's,
not
just sectors headers.... in the days when MS wrote MicroSoft Basic
for
the
old Atari in a cartridge....

when the proper way was to write alternate zero's then ones
throughout
each
sector to confirm a sector is reliable at being written to...


if XP's format tool doesnt even do that, thats definately
rediculous...



"John John (MVP)" <audetweld@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%237zpSs$5IHA.3784@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



Charles Lee wrote:




or are you saying MS cannot even do a simple format tool
properly...

No, not at all, to format a disk is to prepare it to accept files
from
the
operating system, all that is needed for that is that the disk be
arranged
in storage units (clusters) and that a file table be available.
There
is
no need to fill a hard drive with zeros to make it available to the
operating system. Would you want to waste your time filling a new
hard
disk with zeros? What you are thinking of is a "wiping" utility,
nothing
to do with formatting at all.

John.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: FDISK & Format
    ... FDISK and format leaves all the data on your disk for any prying eyes to easily recover with simple freeware utilities! ... FDISK simply removes the label on the front of the drawers but leaves all the file folders inside the drawers, anyone who opens the drawers will be able to see all the file folders inside. ... Format simply erases the tabs/labels on the file folders but leaves everything in the folders, anyone who opens the folders will be able to see all that is inside. ... Download the appropriate software from the appropriate hard disk manufacturer. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: conflict of software Nero Recordnow Drivers - or ??
    ... disk package anywhere. ... If Not when Would I format a disk? ... For most normal disc burning projects, music CDs, playable DVDs, Photo CDs, ... I know I did have DLA, On both drives and I was using when asked if I ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Re: Need help to reanimate an AT&T AT&T 3B1/7300 UNIX-PC
    ... it available in source code format, and some people played with it. ... to clear the height of a full-height disk drive. ... diagnostics on the installation floppys for things like the ethernet ... installation -- but not the one which could handle formatting a second ...
    (comp.sys.3b1)
  • Re: Cant find Hard disk
    ... Computer> Manage> Computer Management> Disk Management. ... Now you must partition and format your new drive. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Re: Suggested DSK mod
    ... But, instead, the standard is DSK. ... The standard is DSK without a volume number in the filename. ... the format ties VN to disk order. ... nothing about tying the volume number to the disk ordering. ...
    (comp.emulators.apple2)
Loading