I'm fully formatting a second hard drive in my computer and it's a 3tb drive so it's going to take a while. I was wondering if I could watch videos I have on my other drive or if that would cause the process to run less efficiently or even skip sectors it was supposed to check.
Welcome to Seven Forums bcmerr01.
I think you could watch video but it would likely not play well. If I was doing something as important as a drive format, I'd just wait till it was done.
My Computer
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Home Built Desktop By DataTech
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate X64 SP1
CPU
Intel i5-2550K, Differing ~4.4-4.8GHz No built in GPU
Motherboard
ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3
Memory
16GB G.Skill Sniper 1866MHz @ 2133MHz 2x8GB
Graphics Card(s)
ASUS GTX650TIB-DC2OC-2GD5, (650TI Boost)
Sound Card
Onboard Realtek 5-1
Monitor(s) Displays
Samsung P2570HD
Screen Resolution
1920x1080
Hard Drives
Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD for OS, 500GB Seagate Constellation (Enterprise drive) for Data
PSU
Corsair HX650W
Case
Inwin Dragon Rider
Cooling
Hyper 212 EVO w/two Noctua fans, push-pull, @1300 RPM
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E-Z Eyes, bright yellow keys with large characters
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steelseries SENSEI Laser Pro Gaming
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48-51Mbs Mbs down, 11 Mbs up Xfinity Cable
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Norton Internet Security 2013
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IE 10, Opera, Pale Moon if needed
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4 case fans, LG BluRay-RE, ASUS DVD-RW, Mr. Fusion power supply, 1.21 gigawatts.
I'm fully formatting a second hard drive in my computer and it's a 3tb drive so it's going to take a while. I was wondering if I could watch videos I have on my other drive or if that would cause the process to run less efficiently or even skip sectors it was supposed to check.
There is no real problem in doing something else while you are formatting a drive. At worse, things will seem a little sluggish if you are on a computer with a slow or single processor as even SATA still hits the CPU a little. This will not cause problems with the formatting of the drive, you will just notice sluggishness of your system due to competing resources if you have a low end system.
My Computer
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Alienware Area 51 Desktop and Dell Inspirion 17R (N7010)
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and Home Premium x64
CPU
Intel i7 960 (3.2 GHz Quad Core)
Motherboard
Alienware Intel based X58
Memory
12 Gigs (Triple Channel)
Graphics Card(s)
Alienware OEM nVidia GTX 560 Ti (1.25 Gig)
Sound Card
Creative Labs X-Fi Titanium
Monitor(s) Displays
Samsung PX2370 LED 23" Monitor
Screen Resolution
1920x1080
Hard Drives
2 320 Gig SATA in Raid 1 Configuration (System/App)
1 1 Tera SATA (Games)
1 1 Tera SATA (Data/Music/Videos)
^^What Keiichi25 said is spot on. There's absolutely no worries to use your computer while a drive formats. Just don't go forgetting about it and restarting the machine. I work on all kinds of machines and do it all the time. Never had a problem.