How long does it take to format a 500GB HD

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  1. Posts : 24
    OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium OS Version 6.1.7601
       #1

    How long does it take to format a 500GB HD


    I am reformatting a 500GB Western Digital drive via a USB connection. See that attached jpg for the current configuration.

    The 462 gb partition format ran last night with no change. Today it has run at least 20minutes and continues. How long should I let it run?
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails How long does it take to format a 500GB HD-format-wd-hdd.jpg  
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  2. Posts : 5
    Windows 7 Ultimate
       #2

    what do you plan on using it for, i would just quick reformat it
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  3. Posts : 9
    Windows XP
       #3

    I don't know the exact time it takes to format a 500 GB drive but it's taking too long; something isn't right.
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  4. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #4

    A full format will take several hours. A quick format (which is usually sufficient) will take a few seconds. A full format verifies every track on the disk, so it takes about as long as writing 500GB of data to the disk. A quick format just writes the control records (e.g. MFT).
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  5. Posts : 24
    OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium OS Version 6.1.7601
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Now I am wondering if the HD is defective.

    When I use Computer Management I get inconsistent results. Sometimes the Virtual Disk Service under Disk Management reads all my drives quickly, other times it takes minutes.

    Computer Management consistently hangs too.

    The 462GB did not format. I was able to create a simple volumn but Computer Management cannot read any drives now.
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  6. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #6

    suggest you run a chkdsk /f in elevated cmd
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  7. Posts : 24
    OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium OS Version 6.1.7601
    Thread Starter
       #7

    chkdsk /f

    The type of file system is RAW.
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  8. Posts : 2,651
    W7 RTM Ultimate x64
       #8

    Uh-oh... that's not good.

    Not exactly sure how to get it abck to NTFS..
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  9. Posts : 24
    OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium OS Version 6.1.7601
    Thread Starter
       #9

    Wow.

    I just run Format F: /NTFS /Q

    It formated in seconds.

    KIS Keep it simple.

    Thanks for your support.

    Russell
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  10. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #10

    RAW usually means that Windows cannot deal with the filetype. Something is wrong on the disk. Usually I would say that you have a defective boot sector - but this is a new disk. Another possibility is that you have a defunct OS. Run sfc /scannow in elevated cmd. Maybe it helps. If you get a CBS.log, deal with it as follows:

    When it is done, you can end up with the following different results:
    1. SFC did not find any corrupted files
    2. SFC did find corrupted files and was able to fix the files
    3. SFC was not able to fix all corrupted files
    SFC stores the results in the CBS.log which you find in C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. This is a massive file of approximately 5MB and if you care to see it all, you must send CBS.log to one of your own folders or the desktop from where you can double click on it. It will then open with Notepad. Note: You cannot open it inside the CBS folder. You will get an Access denied message.
    But most likely you are only interested in the part that shows the corrupted files that were fixed – or not fixed. For that you need a significant data reduction. You do that as follows:
    Open another elevated Command Prompt and paste this command into it:

    findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log

    This will show all the files you want to see in the Command Prompt window.
    Since that window is not very practical for a detailed study, you want to paste the content into a Notepad, Wordpad or Word file.
    For that you right click on the Command Prompt window (any place is good) and click Select All. Then you right click anywhere in the window. Now this whole text is stored on the clipboard and you can paste it into a document file (e.g. Notepad) where you can analyze it.

    Edit: Looks like all of that is for the birds - LOL. Maybe it helps someone else.
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