Blank (virgin) HDD's; are any preformatted?
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Thread: Blank (virgin) HDD's; are any preformatted?

  1. #1
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    Blank (virgin) HDD's; are any preformatted?

    I have always been under the impression new hard drives (not SSD's) are not formatted. Low level, yes, but not for ant file system (FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3 etc.) It was up to the user to prepare the drive.

    I got into a discussion with an "engineer" from a small CE manufacture regarding DVR's and he is/was under the impression new drives were already formatted. I explained how could be since there isn't any way the manufacture would/could know how/where the drive was going to be used.

    I did a little searching and came across this article;
    http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-...al-hard-drive/

    and this statement;
    Most new external hard drives available in the market are designed to be plug and play. By plug and play, what I mean is that you can just plug in the hard drive and start using it right away. This is because the manufacturers send the disk initialised and ready to work with the most common operating systems.
    The internal hard disks available in the market, on the other hand, require to be prepared before use.
    "External" hard drives?? The only "external" thing I know is an external enclosure.

    Am I missing something here?? Has something changed in the past five or so years??
    Last edited by videobruce; May 4th, 2012 at 08:31 AM.
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  2. #2
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    I have never heard of or purchased a hard drive that was pre-formatted (and I've purchased MANY drives), but I'm sure one of the experts here will give you a definitive answer.
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  3. #3
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    This "external" drive come pre-formatted NTFS - but can be reformatted for MAC's.

    http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Western+...&skuId=9875549
    If you're happy and you know it......it's your meds.

  4. #4
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    But if you open it up, there is a conventional 3.5" HDD inside.

    Point is, as usual, the description/terminology is misleading. It's adding to more confusion.
    Last edited by videobruce; May 4th, 2012 at 09:22 AM.
    Copyright protection & Intellectual property my ass. All the studios want is more money & control.
    Enough is enough!

  5. #5
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    External USB drives may have either a 2.5 or 3.5 hdd. And are formatted with FAT32.

    Most folks reformat using NTFS after checking them out in disk management.

  6. #6
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    Most USB storage devices come ready-to-go, (pre-formatted).

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