What does low-level format mean? How to perform the low-level format? Here, I am going to show you how to do it with the free Seagate low-level format tool.
Key Takeaways:
Formatting a Seagate external hard drive will erase all data stored on the disk. SeaTool provides hard drive diagnostics and zero-filling of internal drives. However, low-level formatting features are not perfect and complicated to operate. Read on as we cover the best Seagate format tools and low-level format tools to download and use.
Low-level formatting uses sector-by-sector erase and reset of storage devices such as hard disk drives, SSDs, external hard drives, USB and even SD cards. This article provides a powerful and easy-to-use Seagate formatting tool - AOMEI Partition Assistant to help you perform low-level formatting.
This tool revolutionizes the way low-level partitioning is performed by providing a user-friendly and effective SSD formatting platform.
Continue reading and we will introduce how to use this HDD low level format tool to format and reformat seagate hard drive in Windows 11 and Windows 10.
The low-level format we mentioned above has been done by the disk manufacturer before leaving the factory, users are unable to operate by themselves, and the low-level format will damage the life of the disk. But we can use "zero-fill" to achieve the same goal as a low-level format, which means clearing the data area of the sector.
Next, I will introduce to you a professional low-level format utility, AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. This is a powerful tool without any bundle, and it can be used for low-level format (zero fill) Seagate hard drive. Most importantly, it provides a graphical user interface, and users can perform the formatting with a few clicks. In addition, it also supports wiping a hard drive including OS.
Step 1. After opening it, right-click the hard drive you want to low-level format (Take disk 4 as an example) and select “Wipe Hard Drive” or click "Wipe" > "Wipe Hard Drive" on the toolbar.
Step 2. Choose “Fill sectors with Zero (Safe, Quick)” as the wiping method. And click “OK”.
If you want to try the other three methods, you should upgrade to Pro Edition: ● Fill sectors with Zero (Safe, Quick): Fill sectors with zeros is a general method of low-level format. ● Fill sectors with random data (Safe, Quick, PRO): Write random data to all sectors on the disk, which is safer than the first method. ● DoD 5220.22-M (Very Safe, Quick, PRO): This is a software-based data cleaning method that erases the hard disk and other storage devices by overwriting the existing data on the hard disk. This hard disk erasing method can make almost all None of the software-based recovery tools can list data and information. ● Gutmann (35 passes, Very Safe, Very Slow, PRO): A software-based data cleaning method that prevents all software-based file recovery software and most hardware-based file recovery tools from recovering data.
Step 3. Click “Apply” and “Proceed” to commit the operation.
Warning: The way of writing data on SSD is completely different from that on HDD. If you want to format Seagate SSD, I recommend you use SSD Secure Erase.
Seagate (Seagate Technology Cor) was founded in 1979 and is currently the world's largest manufacturer of hard drives, magnetic disks, and read-write heads. Formatting is actually the operation of initializing a disk or disk partition, it can delete all files in an existing disk or partition, and Formatting is divided into the low-level format and high-level format.
The high-level format(HLF): refers to reformat each partition after the hard disk is partitioned. It just clears the data on the partition, generate boot information, initialize the FAT table, mark logical bad sectors, etc. The format we usually talk about is the high-level format.
The low-level format (LLF): refers to the hard disk is divided into cylinders and tracks, and then divides the tracks into several sectors, each sector is divided into identification part ID, interval area, GAP, and data area DATA. The low-level format is a necessary prerequisite for the high-level format, each hard disk has been low level formatted before leaving the factory. However, the low-level format is a lossy operation to the hard disk.
Generally, if you want to perform low-level formatting operations on Seagate, it means that your Seagate device has the following conditions: ✦ There are many bad sectors on the hard drive, which will cause data access errors, and even the operating system cannot be used at all. ✦ The computer may not work when the hard drive is infected with virus. ✦ When the hard drive is almost full, you can use the low-level format to free up space.
After reading the above description, I believe you have found a low-level format tool for Seagate and understanding of how to use it. But what you should know that Low-level format zero-filling on the Seagate hard disk does not really repair the bad sectors, the bad sectors still exist, but the bad sectors are prevented from being used by marking, the essence is to hide the bad sectors and no longer use them.