I've been wanting to reinstall Windows on a formatted drive for a time now. Recently a problem came up which the solution for is to defrag my drive.
Will formatting the drive remove the need to defrag it afterwards? I mean, a bunch of nothing is as orderly as it can be...
No, a format does not defrag.
When you clean reinstall it will format the partition before install even if you don't do it yourself. It's just a minor preparation step, not some big erasure or Disk Check that many think.
Defragging does order the HD better and is good to do occasionally after running awhile. I use free Puran Defragger for it's boot time defrag which gets at System files. You can also have it do a Full Disk Check at the same time which checks and repairs the Files system which lives on the HD. Any more serious problems should be tested by running the HD maker's HD Diagnostic extended CD scan.
Adapt these steps to get a perfect clean reinstall of Win7: Reinstalling Windows 7
Last edited by gregrocker; 05 Feb 2012 at 22:10. Reason: state the obvious clearer.
Thanks for the quick reply but I don't think you understood my answer?
Basically it was, does formatting does what defragging supposed to do + delete everything? does format>defrag?
Don't forget that W7 has a built-in Defragger.
It automatically defrags your HDD (scheduled for 1:00 AM or 2:00 AM Wednesday mornings).
You can also run it manually.
That said, I use Piriform's Defraggler (before I create my monthly backup images).
IIRC:
Formatting "deletes" the directory/file allocation table (quick).
Low level formatting overwrites the blocks (slow).
If you format your HDD, you don't have to defrag it, as there is "nothing" on it.
Last edited by lehnerus2000; 05 Feb 2012 at 21:50. Reason: Additional
The purpose of defragging a drive is to organize files contiguously. When a drive has been formatted, the index is erased and allows the computer to write to each block. Therefore defragging is not needed afterward.
As an aside, I don't think Win 7 does a low level format (not sure). Gparted, for example, does allow a low level format.
Duh. I should just follow Brink's tutorial on llf using diskpart.
Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command
Thanks lehnerus2000, that's what I needed to know.
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