The best program for low-level formatting a hard drive and USB devices - an overview. Free hard drive formatter

All new hard disks already formatted at a low level by the manufacturer and do not require re-initialization. In practice, under normal circumstances, you are unlikely to need to perform low-level formatting. hard drive, because purely technically, real formatting of this kind can only be performed by the manufacturer.

What computers call low-level formatting is actually more of initialization and surface testing of the disk, since the process performs writes and read checks on all sectors of the disk. If there are no disk problems, there is no need for a full initialization or surface check.

What is low-level formatting?

First, let's understand the concepts of formatting at a low and at a high level.

Low level format- an operation during which servo marks are applied to the magnetic surface of the disk (information that is used to position the heads of the hard disk). It is carried out in the process of manufacturing a hard disk, on special equipment.

When the process is first run low-level formatting hard drive, the hard disk platters are empty, that is, they contain absolutely no information about sectors, tracks, and so on. This is the last moment when the hard drive has absolutely empty platters. The information written during this process will never be overwritten again.

Older hard drives had the same number of sectors per track and did not have built-in controllers, so the external hard drive controller did the low-level formatting, and the only information it needed was the number of tracks and the number of sectors per track. Using this information, the external controller could format the hard drive. Modern hard drives have a complex internal structure, including changing the number of sectors per track when moving from external to internal tracks, as well as built-in servo information to control the drive heads.

Due to such a complex data structure, all modern hard drives are low-level formatted only once - at the factory.

There are two types of high-level formatting:

Formatting in normal mode - a process that consists in creating a master boot record with a partition table and (or) structures of an empty file system, setting a boot sector, and similar actions. The formatting process also checks the integrity of the media to block bad sectors.

Quick Format - the same process as formatting in normal mode, only without checking the media for bad sectors.

The use of the term low-level formatting in relation to hard drives has given rise to many myths. For example, there is an opinion that it is impossible to perform a low-level formatting of a hard disk and that attempting such an operation will result in destruction of the disk. In principle, there is some truth in this misconception. It consists in the fact that during low-level formatting of old disks of the late 1980s model, the optimal setting bevel of heads and cylinders, set by the manufacturer of the disk, as well as a map of disk defects.

All this negatively affected the performance of devices. The described problem has long since been resolved, and all devices using zone recording (with a variable number of sectors per track) are immune to any problems that low-level formatting can lead to, since real markers cannot be replaced by a sector.

So low-level formatting of disks released in the 1990s and later excludes violating its settings.

At the same time, there is often a real need to perform low-level formatting of ATA and SCSI drives. Now we will talk about programs that will help to do this.

Programs for low-level formatting of ATA disks (SATA, PATA, etc.)

ATA drive manufacturers have defined and standardized extensions to the original controller hard drives WD1002/1003 by creating an AT bus interface (known as an ATA interface). The ATA specification is implemented for vendor specific commands that are unique to the standard. To avoid incorrect low-level formatting, many of the ATA devices have special commands that must be sent to the device to unlock the format procedures. These commands are specific to the device manufacturer, so you should look for low-level formatting and defect management programs created by the drive manufacturer.

These programs are most often designed not only for devices of a particular manufacturer, but also for their individual models. So before doing a search, make a note of the manufacturer and model number of your hard drive.

Modern hard drives are protected from the possibility of changing the skew factor or defect map because they are always in conversion mode. Devices with zone recording are always in this mode and thus are completely protected.

Most hard drives have an additional set of commands that are used during the formatting process, and the standard ATA specification commands do not work (especially for zone-write ATA devices).

Spare sectors can also be allocated automatically using programs provided by the device manufacturer. Without knowing the correct manufacturer-specific commands, it is impossible to replace defective sectors with spare ones specially allocated in modern devices for these purposes. The detected bad sector is replaced in the distribution structure with the spare sector closest to it.

Some manufacturers of rigid drives offer low-level formatting programs. They can be found at the following addresses.

• Seagate
  ftp://ftp.seagate.com/techsuppt/seagate_utils/sgatfmt4.zip
  http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools
• Hitachi/IBM
  www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
• Maxtor/Quantum
  http://www.maxtor.com/softwaredownload/default.htm
• Samsung
  www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/hutil.htm
  www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/sutil.htm
  www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/shdiag.htm
• western digital
  http://support.wdc.com/download/

First of all, you should try out the programs provided by the device manufacturer. All of them are free and often allow you to work at a low level in a way that broad-based programs do not allow.

If the drive manufacturer does not offer an initialization/verification/formatting program, you can use the Drive Fitness Test program from Hitachi (formerly IBM). This program works great with drives from other manufacturers and performs a detailed full test of the entire hard drive. This is one of the best programs general purpose, because it allows you to perform a non-destructive test. Although any device can be tested with it, there is one limitation: destructive read/write tests can only be performed on Hitachi and IBM drives.

Advice!

All of the programs listed for initialization, testing, and hard formatting disk, as well as many others, can be found in the Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) Utilities Collection. This is a fantastic collection of diagnostic tools in one downloadable CD! A copy of this CD can be downloaded from www.ultimatebootcd.com.

Non-destructive formatting tools

I strongly discourage the use of non-destructive BIOS-level formatting tools such as Calibrate (formerly included with Symantec Norton Utilities) when low-level formatting is really needed. Such tools are characterized by a number of limitations and problems that reduce their effectiveness. They perform low-level formatting on individual tracks using BIOS functions; while doing so backup and restoration of individual tracks.

These programs also do not create a defect map, as low-level formatters usually do. Moreover, they can remove defect map markers added by standard low-level formatters. As a result, it becomes possible to save data in bad sectors, which in some cases may lead to a loss of warranty.

Another limitation is that these programs can only be used when working with hard drives pre-formatted using BIOS functions.

A low-level formatter created by disk manufacturers "bypasses" the system BIOS and passes commands directly to the controller. Therefore, many similar programs designed to work with specific controllers. Having one such program that could be used when working with different controllers is almost impossible to imagine. Many hard drives can be incorrectly identified as defective just because the wrong program was used.

Low Level Format HDD and Western Digital SSDs

I’ll make a reservation right away that in this case, low-level formatting means testing the disk surface for bad sectors through reading and writing. As mentioned above, factory low-level formatting of a modern hard drive can only be done by the manufacturer.

Hard drives and solid state drives can be formatted at a low level by several methods. Let's consider one of them applicable to PC. Mac computers are not suitable for this example.

To low-level format a hard drive, we need:

1. Hard disk drive, in this case, the manufacturer of Western Digital (in this example, the Maxtor drive was tested, and the procedure was successful)
2. Software Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for Windows

Before the formatting process, connect the device to the computer. This can be done either through the IDE, SATA, USB or Firefire interface. In this case, low-level formatting will be carried out in the Windows system, without pre-booting using special boot disks. This is the easiest way to regular user PC.

After the device is connected:

1. Download Windows Data Lifeguard Diagnostics from http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=113&sid=3&lang=en

2. After downloading the application, launch it and follow the installation wizard.

If after installation a dialog box appears with a message about the impossibility of starting the program, then close it and click on the OK button. The program must be started in a different way.

3. A shortcut to the program will appear on the desktop, double-click on it.

4. Check the box next to I accept this… and click on the Next button.

The program will display all connected drives. Despite the fact that in my example, the formatting was carried out on a test Maxtor hard drive, and it was successful, I recommend that you use this program only for Western Digital discs, to avoid possible problems with a carrier. If you have a Seagate hard drive, use a similar program from Seagate.

5. Select the disk that needs to be diagnosed and click the to run tests button. ALWAYS double-check that you have selected the correct drive, otherwise, you will lose all data on this medium, without the possibility of their recovery, since this process is destructive and irreversible.

7. In the next window, select the EXTENDED TEST option and click the Start button.

8. Close all files that are open on the selected hard drive and click the OK button.

9. The test procedure on a 20 GB hard drive took about 10 minutes. At the end of testing, click on the Close button.

10. But that's not all. Now again click on the to run tests button and in the dialog box select the WRITE ZEROS option and click on the Start button. This procedure will overwrite all sectors with zeros.

10. Depending on the state of the disk, you will receive one or two prompts to remind you that this action will destroy all data currently on the disk. Click the Yes button.

10. Then choose which method you would like to use to write the zeros. The QUICK ERASE option is much faster, but does not completely erase the disk. This is suitable for users who plan to rewrite the disc multiple times. FULL ERASE completely erases the disc. This takes longer, but ensures that no data on the drive can later be recovered using data recovery methods. This method is designed for people who need to permanently delete data from their disk, such as hackers;).

Once you have determined which method you would like to use, select the OK button to begin the formatting process. I recommend choosing FULL ERASE (Full erasure).

11. Start the overwriting process. For example, it took me about 10 minutes to overwrite a 20 GB hard drive.

12. After the process is complete, click again on the to run tests button and in the dialog box select the VIEW TEST RESULT option and click on the Start button.

13. The window will display information about the hard drive and the tests that have passed. To be honest, the information in this report is very scarce.

14. If the process was successful, then the low-formatted hard drive will not be available in the system. Now it needs to be initialized, partitioned and formatted at a high level.

14. Open Start -> All Programs-> Accessories-> Run and in the window enter the command diskmgmt.msc .

15. The Disk Management program will start and the Disk Initialization window will automatically appear, where the required disk will be selected. Specify the Master Boot Record option and click the OK button.

This completes the low-level formatting process.

The same process can be used for hard drive media from other manufacturers. For example, Seagate for its media offers very handy tool for diagnostics.

In conclusion, I will give an example of how the Data Lifeguard Diagnostics program displays a failed disk. As an example, a Fujitsu hard drive was taken. The program has determined that the media is bad, as indicated by SMART STATUS .

The program, using EXTENDED TEST, showed that bad sectors were found on the disk.

The program tried to fix them, but nothing happened.

There can be two reasons for this: firstly, the hard drive and the diagnostic program - different manufacturers, so some commands may not be processed correctly, and secondly, this disk cannot be restored, since it began to "crumble", i.e. appeared on the surface of his disks physical damage; before that it was already on my test table.

Now, many modern PC users are unaware of how often any program for formatting a hard drive has previously helped out. .

background

Another aspect of the need for the once frequent use of programs to format hard drives is hardware problems.

Small amount of media, frequent hardware errors and the like.

But oddly enough, over time, the need to format disks still remained even with the advent of modern solid-state drives.

At the same time, the formatting operation has ceased to be an everyday norm, and if it is necessary to format the hard disk, many users are at a loss as to how and in what way it can be done.

Fortunately, over time, the quality of software products designed for formatting hard drives, and their number has increased markedly.

And now the user is not limited to built-in ones, but has access not just to third-party software products, but to whole software packages that allow you to perform not only formatting, but also several other useful operations, in particular, improving hard state disc and its lifespan.

Some of these tools are shareware, some come with a free license, and the rest, however, is available only with a purchase.

Each of them has its own advantages and we propose to consider several of the most commonly used and popular tools with sufficient functionality.

Paragon Partition Manager Free Edition

A program to format a hard drive called Paragon Partition Manager free edition stands out against the background of other similar software products by the ability to perform operations on virtual storage media.

In addition, for those who still cannot refuse Windows usage XP, it will provide support for high-capacity drives of the order of 2 TB or more.

Among other functionality, there is copying and restoring disks, merging them, moving and resizing them. And all this in the presence of a Russified shell.

Some will find the defragmentation function superfluous in the kit, but absolutely everyone will like protection against system failures and detection of bad sectors.

EASEUS Partition Master

This hard drive formatter has the advantage of having several versions with different functionality.

Some of them are free, but the Home Edition and Master Free versions deserve special attention for ordinary users.

The program has excellent functionality, available through the Russian-language software shell.

It can be run by the family operating Windows, in particular, 7, 8 and 10 versions of both 32-bit and 64-bit, and some versions allow you to work through Linux.

The software product provides work with a wide range of heterogeneous drives, the most important of which are:

Above them, you can carry out not only formatting, but also creating or changing sections, for example, merging, deleting, copying and resizing.

The program has access to work with RAID arrays and provides user interaction with .

Some operations can be performed using built-in wizards, which greatly facilitates the work of the user.

It is worth paying attention to the fact that each version of the product has its own limitations, in particular, the maximum size of the drive.

For example, in the Home Edition it is 8 TB, and in Master Free it is only 4 TB.

Rice. 2 - Fragment of the EASEUS Partition Master window

Aomei Partition Assistant

A hard drive formatting program called Aomei Partition Assistant refers to products that are distributed free of charge, but with decent functionality.

It provides a number of features that are not available to others. free products and therefore belongs to a completely different class.

This software package, like the previous product, has a Russian-language shell and supports modern operating systems. Windows families and and, respectively, operating under their control file systems: FAT 12/16/32, NTFS, Ext2/3/4, exFAT/ReFS.

In parallel with working on physical media, the program performs operations on virtual disks.

As for the special functionality, it is implemented in the form of access to disks that are invisible to other software tools.

The program allows you to check, test and a number of other useful operations.

All this against the backdrop of minimal system requirements ranging from processor version to available disk memory.

This software is able to work even under such conditions when the device has 128 disks installed, and the volume size is 16 TB.

And also it is one of the few products that can work with SSHD, flash drives and flash cards.

Is it worth mentioning at the same time that it supports, and all operations performed are performed without damaging user information, according to the creators?

Rice. 3 - Aomei Partition Assistant window

MiniTool Partition Wizard

This program for formatting a hard drive is more modest, but much more popular, not only in the domestic space, but throughout the world.

It is free and provides interaction under the control of operating systems of the Windows family, including the latest versions of various bitness, while also processing EXT disk partitions, as well as Linux Swap.

The software interface has a Russified shell and provides work with partitions larger than 2 TB.

It is quite simple and will be clear even to a novice user. The functionality of the interface is quite wide and even includes the newfangled migration from HDD to SSD.

And also the software product performs a number basic operations with disks and their partitions, including their cloning, creation and modification.

If desired, the user can test their drives by testing their performance.

Like some of the programs described above, this one can, and this is important when a frequently used system partition is worn out.

In parallel with this, it is possible to assign active sections and interact with them.

Rice. 4 - MiniTool Partition Wizard window

HDD Low Level Format Tool

This hard drive formatter belongs to a different category than the ones discussed above. software. Therefore, it deserves special attention.

This is not a large software package with wide functionality, but a small program that has in its set of functions only the possibility of low-level formatting.

This option provides, with the specified settings, the possibility of restoring the operability of storage media.

At the same time, this functionality applies to both hard drives and flash drives.

The only problem for the user in this case is only the complete destruction of data on the media without the possibility of their further recovery.

Unfortunately, there are no other media operations that this product can perform.

Rice. 5 - HDD Low Level Format Tool window

Hard drives (hard drives, hard drives, HDD) are unusually pampered devices. It is worth shaking a little, overheating, looking askance - and the disk is already covered with terrible "bad blocks" that threaten both it and all the information on it with inevitable death.

In a disk failure situation, the most important thing is to save valuable data. But what to do then with their carrier? Can it be used in the future? They say that one cure helps with all such "sores": low-level formatting of the hard drive. Let's figure out what kind of "pill" it is and when it becomes necessary to prescribe it.

What is it really

Today, low level format is called a completely different operation, which it is in reality. In fact, this is one of the stages in the manufacture of disk drives, and it is carried out at the factory.

As you know, all . Each piece of data has a unique address where it can be found. Creating areas for writing data on a clean magnetic surface and assigning addresses to them is low-level formatting.

To be more precise, this is the process of physically dividing the disk surface into tracks(circles or tracks along which read/write heads move), their sectors(track sections are the smallest information storage areas on a disk drive with their own address) and inter-sector intervals. Also, applying servo tags– service records between sectors and within them, according to which the head control system ( servo system HDD) will be able to position the latter.

After marking, the disk surface is subjected to a thorough scan to detect defects in the magnetic layer (physically "broken" sectors), which should be excluded from addressing. According to the test results, a list of defects and a translator are formed - a table of correlation of healthy physical sectors with logical (numbered) ones. This is also part of factory formatting.

A very long time ago, this entire procedure could be performed using the BIOS of a home PC. Today, there are practically no such computers and drives left. Modern HDDs cannot be physically repartitioned without special equipment and software, and low-level formatting is the operation of “filling” the logical space with zeros (without access to the service areas in which the translator is stored).

As a result of this formatting:

• All information (except service information) is deleted from the hard drive.
• A custom defect list is created with addresses of bad sectors that will be hidden - excluded from subsequent read and write operations.
• Defective sectors are replaced by "healthy" ones from the spare area (remap).

What Problems Pseudo-Low-Level Formatting Helps Solve

The operation is used:

• To prepare your computer for transfer into the wrong hands, so that new owner could not restore the files of the previous one.
• To fix those that cannot be removed in non-destructive ways.
• For the treatment of certain types of boot viruses.

It is effective:

• If the appearance of "broken" sectors is not associated with a malfunction of the mechanical and electrical components hard drive. For example, they were formed after a short-term overheating of the disk or a sudden power outage of the computer, and their number does not grow.
• If there are relatively few defects.

An example of detecting several unstable sectors when scanning a hard drive with the HD Tune utility:

She's useless:

• If the hard drive has suffered from a fall, drowning, depressurization of the case (HDA).
• If it makes rattles, knocks, grunts and other unnatural sounds when turned on, or is poorly detected by the computer (it periodically disappears).

The main area of ​​this disk is occupied by unreadable sectors. Treatment with homemade "low-level" formatting will most likely not help him:

How and how to carry out "low-level" formatting at home

Any utility designed for this will be able to fill the surface of the hard disk with zeros and replace the “broken” sectors with normal ones. Even created by a manufacturer of hard drives of another brand. Rewriting and remapping operations are triggered by a standard algorithm that all disk controllers understand (the final decision on remapping bad sectors is made by the controller). These utilities do not have the ability to use highly specific technological commands, so they are not able to cause any harm to the device.

Which utility will do the task you need best? It's not a fact that your native hard drive will work more accurately than the universal one. One did not help - start another. There will be no harm from this, but the benefit is possible, since sometimes it takes several attempts to correct one defective block.

Let's figure out how to conduct a "low-level" HDD formatting with three free utilities.

Universal HDD Low Level Format Tool (HDDLLFT) for Windows

• Let's connect the problem drive to a PC running Windows.
• Download and install the application HDDLLFT. After installation select " Continueforfree» (Continue for free).

• We mark in the list of drives the one that we are going to format, and click the button " Continue>>>».

• In the next window, go to the section " lowlevelFormat» and press « Formatthisdevice»

• Confirm the operation again and wait for it to finish.

SeaTools for DOS for Seagate HDD

SeaToolsforDOS released in format iso image for writing to bootable DVDs, flash drives and floppy disks. After starting the computer from such media, the main window of the utility immediately opens. For convenience, we will switch it to Russian, mark the problematic drive in the list, go to the menu " Additional functions » (Advanced Features) and click « Erase everything» (Erase all).

Windows Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for WD hard drives

Windows Data Lifeguard Diagnostics is one of the branded applications Western Digital with "low-level" disk formatting. In addition to it, this function is supported by utilities

When installing the operating system, as well as when changing files, redistributing space between partitions, it is necessary to format HDD. This is a fairly common operation performed by PC users. If you have not done anything like this yet, then let's deal with the theoretical part of the question.

Formatting process, what is it?

The marking of information storage areas, in which some of it is deleted, is called formatting. It creates a system for accessing stored information.

Typically run for:

• changing one file system to another;
• deleting files from the hard drive.

On this moment exists a large number of various file systems. They are used on a variety of equipment, including not only computers, but also mobile devices. To work in the latest Windows versions the NTFS file system is used.

Video: How to format a hard drive

Why format a hard drive?

Formatting is done to remove files from the hard disk, as well as to change one file system to another.

In most cases, they resort to it:

• before installing a new operating system;
• to create an installation Windows image, for example, on a flash drive;
• due to the need to clean the disk from files, in case they are not needed.

Formatting with Windows tools

Despite the large number of various programs for working with hard drive operating room Windows system has its own set of utilities.

Consider the process of formatting disks using Windows:

1. select the drive you want to format;
2. press the right mouse button;
3. select Format;
4. in the window that appears, select the file system, cluster size, and formatting method;
5. as a file system, it is recommended to set NTFS, and leave the cluster size by default - 4096;
6. after setting the required parameters, click Start.

Windows also includes a more complete hard drive service.

To open this menu, do the following:

1. press right click mouse on My Computer;
2. select Manage;
3. open Disk Management;
4. V this menu The user can perform various operations on the hard disk including formatting.

Formatting via command line

Run this operation You can also use the command line:

• press the key combination Win + R;
• enter cmd and press Enter;
• V command line write the format y: command, where y is the letter of your drive, maybe, for example, c or d;
• the system will ask you to confirm the operation by pressing the Y key;
• after confirmation, the system will start the formatting process;
• this message will appear when finished.

Format HDD in BIOS

If you need to format from BIOS hard section disk, you have to tinker a little. Unfortunately, the BIOS does not have tools for formatting a hard drive, so you should use third-party programs to perform these operations.

One of the most common is Acronis Disk Director. To work with it, you need to create a bootable media in the operating system with the files of this program. But before starting to create bootable media It is worth considering another option - formatting with Windows Installer. This solution is a simpler option compared to Acronis Disk Director.

For this method you only need a disk or flash drive with a recorded installation package operating system.

For formatting, follow these steps:

Attention! Drive partition letters may not match. To more accurately determine the required disk, use the wmic logicaldisk get deviceid, volumename, size, description command.

Creating a bootable flash drive Acronis Disk Director

To create a bootable flash drive you will need:

Action algorithm:

1. insert a flash drive;
2. install and open the program;
3. in the application, open the Tools section and select Acronis Bootable Media Builder;
4. click next;
5. select the type of Windows PE bootable media;
6. in the next menu should be noted necessary components for writing to a flash drive;
7. after selection, you must select the media to which the recording will be made, and click Next. The flash drive should be formatted in FAT 32 format using the Windows utility;
8. you can also create an image for later burning to a flash device or disk using the Ultra ISO program.

Working with a bootable flash drive Acronis Disk Director

To download a flash drive you need:

How to format an external hard drive to NTFS

The most convenient formatting method is to perform all actions using standard operating system utilities. This solution does not require installation additional programs and creating additional boot disks.

If you do not have an operating system installed, then in this case you should use special programs, such as Acronis.

Steps describing how to format a hard drive as ntfs:

Utilities

In addition to the standard Windows programs there are various utilities used for the same purpose.

Among the most common options are the following:

What is the best program in ntfs to format drives?

Each program has its own characteristics, but the main direction for all utilities remains the same - working with disks, including creating partitions, forming into other file systems, etc. Therefore, choosing a program is a purely personal matter for each user, which depends on his preferences .

Problems and solutions when formatting

How to quickly format a disk without losing data?

Unfortunately this is not possible. All stored information will be deleted. Only part of the data can be recovered.

Which drive is better: remote or external?

Formatting external drives is done in the same way as for a regular hard drive. At this process all information will be deleted, including windows, after execution, the disk is obtained as new without windows.

Unable to format hard drive

If you did everything according to the instructions, but did not achieve the result, you should not sound the alarm. It doesn't always mean something bad.

• format command - cannot be used for a system drive if it is in its environment;
• if the operating system is located on another partition of the hard drive, it cannot be deleted;
• settings antivirus program access to different sections of the hard drive may be closed;
• different applications and viruses can block access.

If you have removed the above factors, but you still cannot format the hard drive, you will have to resort to special programs. The most popular tool is HDDscan, which is easy to install and free of charge.

Action algorithm:

• download the utility;
• open and install;
• run as administrator;
• click on the icon in the form of a sphere located in the center of the interface;
• select Surface tests;
• check the box next to Erase;
• go to the Add test tab;
• click on Scan;
• in the right, lower corner, write down these errors;
• set the EraseWAITs option to ON and select Scan again;
• repeat until the error is gone.

You can also use Acronis Disk Director. If you cannot format portable rigid disk, using this program, most likely the hard disk is partially out of order. And the whole procedure, sometimes it is possible to perform, only from bootable media, that is, not in the operating system.

How to force format a flash drive?

You can use the program to format flash drives HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool

• provide the necessary set of functions;
• have a fairly simple interface that will be easy for novice users to work with.

What is a hard drive formatter? In different cases, it can be a powerful software package or a small utility with a couple of functions.

In addition to formatting, such programs can perform many tasks when working with hard drives and partitions.

Let's take a look at them.

One of the most powerful representatives of software that works with disks and partitions. In addition to formatting, Acronis Disk Director performs many tasks - from creating partitions to scanning and defragmenting disks.

The program allows you to create striped and mirrored volumes. The work of alternating is similar to RAID 0, and the mirror ones perform the function RAID 1.

Acronis Disk Director is notable for being paired with another software from Acronis - Acronis true image . From this bundle are created boot disks to solve most disk and data problems.

MiniTool Partition Wizard

MiniTool Partition Wizard - Formatting Software external hard disk. It can do almost everything that Acronis does, but there are significant differences.

1. The program is free.
2. MiniTool Partition Wizard allows you to convert NTFS to FAT and vice versa, while the data on the disk is saved.
3. There is a function to check the partition surface for reading errors with visual support of the process.
4. It is possible to transfer Windows ( system partitions) to another drive.

EaseUS Partition Master

Another program for formatting a hard drive to fat32. EaseUS Partition Master has several features that are different from previous representatives:

1. Able to clone disks, both as a whole and only the OS.
2. Create boot disks.
3. Clean up disks of large or unnecessary files.
4. Optimize selected sections.

HDD Low Level Format Tool

HDD Low Level Format Tool is a program for low-level hard disk formatting. Has no other functions than reading S.M.A.R.T data from the disk, if supported, and device data (name, serial number etc.). Works only with physical drives.

Among other things, HDD Low Level Format Tool has an official portable version that does not require installation.

The conclusions are as follows: no matter how good Acronis Disk Manager, But MiniTool Partition Wizard still free. If you want to have at hand (why?) a powerful program with many functions, then take a closer look at the first three, but if you are just going to bring the disk to a pristine state, then HDD Low Level Format Tool Help you.