Author Topic: Formating with zeros (Read 9604 times)

Himrich · « **on:** February 01, 2003, 03:35:00 PM »

Does anyone know how long it will take to reformat a 60 GB hard drive with zeros? I probably shouldn't have chosen such a low level format but did not expect it to take hours.

csonni · « **Reply #1 on:** February 01, 2003, 03:47:00 PM »

I recently zeroed my 80 gig Maxtor. I started at around 9 p.m. and it finished up sometime around 11 a.m. the next day. Long time. I don't really think you have to zero the drive unless you're sending it for replacement, or where someone else is getting it.

Himrich · « **Reply #2 on:** February 01, 2003, 04:24:00 PM »

I know now.

It was a big mistake but I had thought it would only take an hour or so, not half a day. The problem is you don't dare stop it while in progress or the dirve will become unusable.

Oh well, live and learn. I have some good movies I can watch to keep me company this afternoon.

kelly · « **Reply #3 on:** February 01, 2003, 05:41:00 PM »

So how are you posting this? Telepathically?

CyberPet · « **Reply #4 on:** February 01, 2003, 06:20:00 PM »

My guess is it should take about 40 minutes or so. It takes a while anyway. I did write zero's on the loaner machine I had while my Powerbook was in for repair and it has a 30 GB harddrive, that took about 20 min.

/Petra

Himrich · « **Reply #5 on:** February 01, 2003, 07:12:00 PM »

Good catch Kelly.

I just happen to have a PC in the house too. My wife's, it works in pinches like this.

Not yet Petra.

It is now 4 hours and counting. According to the earlier post I could be looking at about midnight. I started it at 1 pm.

Oh hum. The wife and I just finished watchng "Singin' in the Rain." Guess we will have to pull a few more movies out before I can get back to my work.

P.S. Is it just me or does it seem like Techsurvivors is slowing down a lot? It seems like it use to be a lot more peppy. Now it can take a screen 15-30 seconds to redraw. And I have a cable modem.

[ 02-01-2003, 08:17 PM: Message edited by: Himrich ]

krissel · « **Reply #6 on:** February 01, 2003, 08:06:00 PM »

quote:
Originally posted by Himrich:

P.S. Is it just me or does it seem like Techsurvivors is slowing down a lot?.

We're working on it.....

Himrich · « **Reply #7 on:** February 01, 2003, 08:55:00 PM »

...and I trust you are. Thanks for your continued effort.

Himrich · « **Reply #8 on:** February 02, 2003, 10:10:00 AM »

OK folks, now I am getting REAL concerned.

It has been 19 hours on my 60 gig drive and it is still isn't done. In fact, other than the constant moving barber pole and the hard drive motor purring, I don't really hear any activity in the drive.

What do I do now? Something seems wrong about this all.

kps · « **Reply #9 on:** February 02, 2003, 10:43:00 AM »

It does appear to be taking an exceedingly long time, however, I did this on a 20G hard drive recently and it took 5hrs of so. I'd let it continue for a while longer. What's the progress indicator showing?

Himrich · « **Reply #10 on:** February 02, 2003, 10:59:00 AM »

Therein lies the $60,000 question. Why isn't there a progress bar? There is only a continuing barber pole.

Does that spell trouble?

kelly · « **Reply #11 on:** February 02, 2003, 11:17:00 PM »

Rick. How are you doing this? From a Jaguar Install CD or what?

I haven't found anything specific on how long it should take but that seems a long time.

Only reference I could find says to unplug everything that isn't stock to the machine.

I guess give it a little more time and then stop it.

I don't know that that would damage the drive.

You could probably just redo it.

Is this a new machine? New Drive? What?

Not very helpfull.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=21103

kps · « **Reply #12 on:** February 02, 2003, 11:25:00 PM »

Sorry, I misunderstood your "barber pole" reference to mean the progress bar. My appologies, I understand what you meant now.

It appears that there is a problem. Is there any message in the window? I'm reluctant to just tell you to shut it down until someone with definitive knowledge pops in, but unless there's a Cancel button in the window, that may be the only solution.

Himrich · « **Reply #13 on:** February 02, 2003, 11:27:00 PM »

You are absolutely right Kelly, I didn't give much info in my original post, did I?

The drive I am attempting to reformat is an external QPS Que!M3 60 GB firewire drive. I am running Disk Utility from my G3 Powerbook running Jaguar 10.2.3.

I have had the energy saver functions turned off thru yesterday and last night, but I forgot to turn off the screen effects. Could that have affected the time?

What troubles me is I don't hear what I think I should be hearing. You know, the disk access sounds of something writing to disk.

Does this help?

Himrich · « **Reply #14 on:** February 02, 2003, 11:48:00 PM »

There is no message per se. Just a window with the words "Formatting with zeros" on top of a barber pole.

No buttons at all.

News:

Author Topic: Formating with zeros (Read 9604 times)