What is low-level formatting?
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What is low-level formatting?
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Low-level formatting is the process in which hard disk platters are divided into tracks, sectors, and cylinders. It creates a physical format that defines where data is stored on a disk. If low-level formatting is performed on a disk containing data, the data will be erased permanently.
Newer hard disks use zoned bit recording that provides more sectors on the outer tracks than the inner ones. The newer hard disk drives also have a feature to transparently map bad sectors. Due to these complexities, new hard disks are low-level formatted at the factory. There is no way for a computer to do an LLF on a modern IDE/ATA or SCSI hard disk.
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