Re: partitioning and use thereof

On 10/10/2021 12:38 PM, Grant Taylor wrote:
> On 10/10/21 2:36 AM, Robert Baer wrote:
>> ..seems to want to work with format N: but slow as all heck.
> 
> Did you let the slow format finish?  Or did you stop it?
> 
>>    So tried format N: /q and got the following messages:
>> Creating file system structures.
>> The first NTFS boot sector is unreadabe.
>> All NTFS boot sectors are unwriteable. Cannot continue.
>> Format failed.
> 
> If you stopped the slow / long format, that error would be unsurprising to me.
> 
>>    So, maybe the SLOW way or NO WAY.
> 
> My understanding is that the quick / short format will only run if there is an existing file system (maybe of the same type).  Something that doesn't exist if you stopped the slow / long format before it finished.
> 

No.

Short format = write new $MFT, done

Long Format  = write new $MFT, then read verify the entire NTFS, if any
                blocks return CRC error, mark off bad clusters using $BAD
                sparse metadata method.

The long format is mostly a read operation.

The short format does everything technically
needed on good media. You should not really
be resorting to "living with bad media" by
using the $BAD method. It's a false economy.

If your media is that bad, when auto-reallocation
hardware support cannot fix a CRC error, then that
disk is in trouble, and on its way out.

While it is possible to have high-fly errors on
a disk drive, and marking off the CRC errored sectors
is perfectly good, this sort of error type is uncommon.
I've only seen it once here, and just after
committing a cardinal sin of turning an old
drive upside down. That's not a good idea, but
because the drive was freezing right-side-up,
I had no choice but to try it.

*******

Back in 1985 or so, when the very first $1000+ HDD
came in (5MB and 10MB drives), if you interrupted the
format of those, they would brick on you. That's because
back then, "format" meant "low-level format" on soft
sectored drives. The magnetic format written, redefined
everything. It was truly, a nuke and pave time. There
was an index mark in hardware, to signal when to write
your soft sectors.

Modern drives, the servo wedges are "permanent". You're
not allowed to "pave" any more. You can only fill potholes
(read sector and write sector interface).

Formatting does not format, not any more. It
does not do low-level format.

Windows format, like anyones format, only has the
ability to read and write sectors. It's not really
formatting as we knew it.

You don't need a file system to exist, to write over it.

The partition can be raw. The first sector of the
partition can be all zeros (the file system type
declaration), and "format" can still write it.

If we could not do that, we could not bootstrap formatting
on brand new year 2021 disk drives from the factory.

I can do a Secure Erase on a modern drive, and partition
and format it, with no reliance on any special things
pre-existing on the disk. Since the servo wedges are permanent,
the disk is always able to orient itself and follow LBA
addressing. Everything is there and everything is locatable
by address. Even Secure Erase, only writes over the payload
section of each sector.

    Paul