Solved Diskpart's clean all versus Full Format

[writhziden]

As I understand it (I was reading this thread http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/200321-need-hdderase-will-work-sata-2.html#post1687550), clean all writes all sectors to 0 on a disk. As I understand from post #13 by Brink, full format will set aside bad sectors so the disk uses only the good sectors when written. Does clean all have the same effect of cleaning up bad sectors, or is it purely for security by writing zeros?

 

[Brink]

Hello Mike,

A full format would only format the selected partition on a HDD.

A Clean All command would wipe all partitions and information on the entire HDD, and do a secure erase on the HDD to help prevent the data from being to be recovered.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[writhziden]

Hello Mike,

A full format would only format the selected partition on a HDD.

A Clean All command would wipe all partitions and information on the entire HDD, and do a secure erase on the HDD to help prevent the data from being to be recovered.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

How does "clean all" manage bad sectors? Does it just try to write them to zeros, or does it also scan for bad sectors and allocate around them?

 

[Brink]

"clean all" doesn't manage or scan for bad sectors. It only secure erases all data and deletes all partitions on a HDD.

To manage and scan for bad sectors, you would want to use the Disk Check instead.

 

[writhziden]

"clean all" doesn't manage or scan for bad sectors. It only secure erases all data and deletes all partitions on a HDD.

To manage and scan for bad sectors, you would want to use the Disk Check instead.

Okay, that is what I thought. Thank you for enforcing my understanding of Diskpart.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome.