{"id":1133,"date":"2018-11-21T07:00:13","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T12:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/langa.com\/?p=1133"},"modified":"2018-11-20T15:51:32","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T20:51:32","slug":"a-reader-asks-why-does-tech-support-think-that-formatting-your-hard-drive-is-the-only-solution-for-all-your-pc-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/21\/a-reader-asks-why-does-tech-support-think-that-formatting-your-hard-drive-is-the-only-solution-for-all-your-pc-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"A reader asks: “Why does tech support think that formatting your hard drive is the only solution for all your PC problems?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q: “Why does tech support think that formatting your hard drive is the only solution for all your PC problems?”<\/strong> (via Quora)<\/small><\/small><\/p>\n

A. Holy smokes! Who told you that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If that\u2019s your experience with tech support, you really should change techs, brands, stores — or wherever it is you\u2019re getting that advice.<\/p>\n

Formatting a drive is usually a last-resort<\/em><\/span><\/strong> kind of thing — a way of starting over from scratch with a drive. It’s almost never a first choice.<\/p>\n

In fact, off the top of my head, I can really think of only five instances where a reformat would be the first choice:<\/p>\n

1. Prepping a PC for resale:<\/strong> A reformat is a good first step towards making sure the new owners won\u2019t be able to read your old data. (There are other necessary steps to complete a drive-wiping process, but that\u2019s not your question.)<\/p>\n

2. Prepping for a wholesale change of operating system:<\/strong> Say you want to change a PC from Windows 10\/NTFS to a Linux\/ext4; your best bet is to reformat, wiping out the old setup in its entirety, and replacing it with the very different setup.<\/p>\n

3. Correcting major disk errors:<\/strong> If a disk\u2019s logical structure is badly scrambled (say, from a bad shutdown during a power failure); or if you need to correct some kinds of recoverable data errors; a reformat may allow the drive to be used again.<\/p>\n

4. Disinfecting a compromised system<\/strong> so hopelessly riddled with malware, viruses, etc., that recovery is impossible, impractical, or uncertain. A total, low-level reformat should wipe out the infections.<\/p>\n

5. Recovering a PC that\u2019s hopelessly screwed up by user error.<\/strong> Sometimes, if\u00a0 users have messed up the guts of a system in serious and unknowable ways, it\u2019s faster, easier, cheaper, and more certain to wipe out the mangled setup and start over.<\/p>\n

If there are other major instances where \u201creformat your drive\u201d is the first option, I\u2019m failing to think of them.<\/p>\n

So, if your techs are telling you that, and if the reason they give doesn\u2019t fall into one of the five categories above, you really need better techs!<\/p>\n

Permalink: https:\/\/wp.me\/paaiox-ih<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/small><\/small><\/p>\n

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Have a comment? Want to ask Fred a new question? Click here!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q: “Why does tech support think that formatting your hard drive is the only solution for all your PC problems?” (via Quora) A. Holy smokes! Who told you that? If that\u2019s your experience with tech support, you really should change techs, brands, stores — or wherever it is you\u2019re getting that advice. Formatting a drive…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,10,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-reader-asks","category-science-and-tech","category-windows"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paaiox-ih","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1680,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/17\/a-reader-asks-what-do-i-do-with-the-usb-drive-that-i-found-in-a-department-store-changing-room\/","url_meta":{"origin":1133,"position":0},"title":"A reader asks: “What do I do with the USB drive that I found in a department-store changing room?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-01-17","format":false,"excerpt":"You have four choices: a safe and ethically positive one; a probably-safe but ethically murky one; a maybe-kinda-sorta-safe one, also with murky ethics; and a totally unsafe one, with murky ethics. The 100% safe choice is not to keep the drive. For one thing, the person who lost the drive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1185,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/28\/a-reader-asks-why-does-my-drive-label-say-1tb-but-windows-reports-only-930-960gb\/","url_meta":{"origin":1133,"position":1},"title":"A reader asks: Why does my drive label say 1TB, but Windows reports only 930-960GB?","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2018-11-28","format":false,"excerpt":"Q: Why do I see 1TB of storage on my hard drive label but only 930-960GB when it's plugged to my computer? (via Quora) A: The drive is sold by raw capacity; but must first be partitioned and formatted before use, and that process consumes some space. An analogy: Think\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2602,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/16\/a-reader-asks-why-am-i-not-able-to-reset-my-pc-or-reinstall-windows\/","url_meta":{"origin":1133,"position":2},"title":"A reader asks: “Why am I not able to reset my PC or reinstall Windows?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-04-16","format":false,"excerpt":"(Answer requested by\u00a0Reese Lynn.) The most common problems include obsolete drivers (check your PC vendor site for updates); too-aggressive third-party software (e.g. anti-rootkits\/anti-malware); and disk errors (run chkdsk ). For some general how-to fixes, see this text; it mentions Win7, but the general fixes discussed there work on any Windows\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":544,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/01\/a-reader-asks-why-is-the-no-reformat-reinstall-failing\/","url_meta":{"origin":1133,"position":3},"title":"A reader asks: Why is his no-reformat reinstall failing?","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2018-10-01","format":false,"excerpt":"Reader Bill Hagemeyer asks, via the Contact link: Q: I have tried to do your Win7 no-reformat reinstall several times, but the system just doesn't ever finish. It gets lost in the middle of the process and never completes. Any advice would be welcome. A: I think we can get\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1697,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/21\/a-reader-asks-i-thought-an-old-external-drive-was-full-but-it-shows-up-as-empty-and-needing-format-when-i-plug-it-in-is-it-really-unused-or-broken\/","url_meta":{"origin":1133,"position":4},"title":"A reader asks: “I thought an old external drive was full, but it shows up as empty and needing format when I plug it in. Is it really unused, or broken?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-01-21","format":false,"excerpt":"Badly scrambled, is my guess. An error during shutdown, or storage, or reboot, may have damaged the disk's MBR or Boot Sector or GUID table (depending on how the disk was set up). If there were files on the disk, they're still there, but the OS can't see or access\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2442,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/22\/a-reader-asks-does-backing-up-system-on-laptop-to-flash-drive-formats-the-usb-into-only-the-size-it-backed-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":1133,"position":5},"title":"A reader asks: “Does backing up system on laptop to flash drive formats the USB into only the size it backed up?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-03-22","format":false,"excerpt":"Formatting and backing up are two separate things. Formatting comes first: it sets the drive up to be able to record and deliver data. Formatting uses a little of the drive\u2019s capacity for itself; what\u2019s left is the amount of data you can actually put on that drive. For example,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1133"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1138,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133\/revisions\/1138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}