reformats

I am doing formats regularly on my computers. The best way to reformat your hdd, without expecting problems, is to use "Quick Format" option for Windows. I don't know if there is such option for linux. Reformatting with "Quick Format" is not deleting the actual contents, but just the data tables. And when you download something from the internet, or copy from a cd, the old data are being removed. Chances are that this won't decrease the life span. FYI, I have a PC, with a 4 years old HDD (Western Digital 70gb), which has been formated more than 80 times in these 4 years, and being used 24x7 (computer is used as a fileserver for my house), and it is still very reliable. If you want your hdd's lifespan to be what it should, do these things: When you reformat, do a "Quick Format", as I stated above. If you leave your computer open, on the power management, set "Turn off hdd when not used after" to "never". If the hdd spins down, and then starts again, will result in damaging it more quickly. The only time where your hdd should be "resting" is when you shut down your computer.

Technically speaking any time you read and write to your hard drive you affect the lifespan, and thus when you reformat (which does a fair amount of reading and writing) it is natural that you would affect the lifespan of your hard drive. Though it is ridiculous to assume that the effect is significant. Technically dust blowing against your home is eroding the bricks, but the effect is negligible.

Yes a hard disk has a life span usually it is based on revolutions, and that occurs with everyday usage on you computer every time you save a file and access a file on that computer. so formatting your hard drive is not going to change anything. Here is an example say your hard drive has a life of 5000 revolutions and you use 1 revolution per day, so your HD will last 5000 days Now say a reformat of the HD uses 10 revolutions thus decreasing the useful life. Now this is only an example and the figures are totally wrong but I think you can see how the lifespan of the HD is effected.

I do it almost every month.I also came to hear that it will afect the Hard disk but no problem till now let's see when it does.I hope it will be under warranty otherwise I'll be done

never!! i would never ever try that!! i call a technician to do that!! i am afraid that i i happen to do something silly then its totally gone!! go to be very careful with electronic goods you see!!

i have done it lots of times. never had problems with hard disk

A faulty hard disk might give you a warning sign before illustrating having bad sectors etc. Dont worry about decreasing its life span. It was made to use it.

I have reformatted our computer a couple of times and I know that it does decrease the life span of the hard disk. Durability, similar to anything that we use and use for a long time, reformatting hard disks entails on reading the hard disk and deleting all data stored in it. A good example would be a piece of paper, you write anything in it and then try erasing everything, the quality of the paper deteriorates. Wherever the data be stored in hard disks, it also deteriorates due to constant use, be it storing data or getting deleted or formatted.

Have you seen the internal parts of a hard disk. It has many layers of disc like stacked very thin CDs and then every one of them has a moving arm which hold a very tiny head that do the read and write. Those stacked disc would spin say 7200 rpm (revolution per minute) and while at it the RW heads assembly move at a relative speed to position its self to the precise location across the radius of the disc. The elegant combination of mechanical movement, electronics and precision. I'm sure you will agree with me that when there are many mechanical part movements they are subject to wear and tear. People who do format TOO often either completely ignore this facts and think that their hard disk are indestructible or too naive to realized that something is not right with their PC maintenance.

Well I never heard about reformat can make your hard disks dicrease it's life span but I guess there is really some valid explanation about it but my fiancee said that if your always defrag your pc then there is a big tendency that your hard disk will not perform well especially when you don't add lots of files and I guess it really depends to the brand of your hard disk or what kind or hard disk it is because I am using my hard disk for about 4 years but I dont know if thats a long year but I cant observe thats its life span is decreasing but anyway your topic is really ok and I will find out about if what is really the factor about it.:-0 GOd bless and have a nice day.:-0

It does lessen the lifespan but only a negligible effect. Reading and writing causes the harddisk to wear and tear. A natural process of the device. But unstable system and bad sectors may be lethal to your harddrive, so it is better to format when problems arise.

I don't think that reformatting your hard disk affects it in any serious way. Hard disks generally last a long time. I reformat mine say once per year or even longer than that. I have never had any problem with my system. Reformatting is also a healthy thing for your system as it's like a fresh start when things are going really badly and you cannot do anything. Good luck. Andrew

I'm also reformatting my hard disk just recently. I don't find it true that it implies something with the life span but it does have something to do with the capacity. If you notice, after every reformatting that you do, there is decrease in the capacity of the drive partition.

Well life span, it depends on what format option you use, and it won't affect your hard disk, life span is wrong term actually. I have formatted harddisks several time within the same day while experimenting operating systems, no change in its work, yeah its media may have more lines, but nothing like lifespan, yes lifespan can be considered for physical things not internal media related format, delete etc. Actually the files you delete also reformats only that space which was occupied by that file, but did it affect, not actually. Also nowadays companies are providing 5yrs warranty, its much improved now, so use it rough no problem.