HDD Partitioning / Formatting

[VideoklipBG]

Hello!

I'm currently relocating, cleaning up around 1.3TB of junk, rendering and re-encoding ~700GB video files, etc. Because I've not done something like that in approximately year and a half maybe... 😀

So I have 3TB total storage (2TB Seagate ST2000VX000 & 1TB Toshiba P300), around 2.7TB usable.
The older, slower 1TB P300 was reformatted and partitioned as MBR (I think), NTFS of course when it was purchased (In my old PC / Setup, 2-3 years ago).

I don't know actually what partition table is the 2TB Seagate, but most likely it's MBR too (because it was formatted and set-up through the windows installer, instead of the familiar way - in the OS)...
I have no idea why that is the case, I did not participate at the moment when this was done, so...

Anyway, I want to clean-up the junk, backup and archive some data and re-format the drives, because of fragmentation, aging, etc. And also to run some tests, check for bad sectors or errors.


I was wondering what do you think about re-partitioning the drives as GPT? (Or only these ones that aren't)

The Windows Disk Management, Properties, Volumes - Nothing is showing information about the partition tables, the capacity or anything like that... Even diskpart > list disk is showing almost everything as "0" or nothing at all.

Also can I re-format for example a drive before re-partitioning it? Do I need to do it, I should say?*

Because deleting the old partition and creating a new one is wiping the data, but is quick format required (just in case) or at least is it useful?

The two drives (HDDs) are overall for any purpose (Programs, Games, Huge Video Files, Software, Backups, Junk Storage...) I have no intentions of running OS on them or booting something ever.

I am currently on Windows 7 Ultimate x64, planning an upgrade soon to Win 10 after finishing all the stuff that I mentioned at the very top. The overall Setup specs are in my signature and profile info.


I would appreciate any opinion about this and suggestions, also Happy Holidays! 😀

 

[SkyNetRising]

GPT partitioning is necessary only for UEFI boot drive and storage drives larger than 2TB.
You don't have any of that. So GPT is not really necessary.

So - simple quick reformat is totally enough for your situation.

 

[Rdslw]

Deep format is something you should do when you sell the drive.
Shallow one deletes file pointers not data, so it can be recovered up to few years back!
I know no reason to do anything beyond NTFS on additional drives and what you already have on boot drive.

 

[VideoklipBG]

I know the requirements for MBR and some of the advantages with GPT... But because MBR is old partition table, it is a little bit unreliable (in some situations) because of the boot sector if somehow it gets damaged, the other limitations and etc.

I think the GUID partition table is faster, more reliable, because it's newer and almost everyone uses UEFI Motherboards currently.
And also whether it takes less initial space for the boot sector information, in comparison with Master Boot Record?

Yeah, we are not talking about booting 2+ TB drive on UEFI, but I was asking about this, because the partition types were not recognized and listed, the Disk Management shows different parameters for each HDD Drive like "Primary Partition", "Active Primary Partition" and the very first initializing / setup / formatting may have been done incorrectly for one or even the both drives, who knows...

And also, as "Rdslw" says:

Deep format is something you should do when you sell the drive.
Shallow one deletes file pointers not data, so it can be recovered up to few years back!
I know no reason to do anything beyond NTFS on additional drives and what you already have on boot drive.

I'm not going to replace or sell a drive, so I don't need 'Deep Formatting' at all, I've not even mentioned something like that?
And we are not talking about the File System (NTFS), but the Partition Table type.

Thanks anyway for the opinions and the suggestions, if anyone else has others - Feel free to share them.

 

[SkyNetRising]

You use GPT, when it's necessary.
When it's not necessary, you can use it or not. Doesn't really make any difference.

Also it would be rather tricky to convert your boot drive to GPT. Windows 10 has special tool for this mbr2gpt, that can do this automatically. But windows 7 doesn't have it and all the conversion would have to be done manually. Possible - yes, but really tricky.

 

[VideoklipBG]

You use GPT, when it's necessary.
When it's not necessary, you can use it or not. Doesn't really make any difference.

Also it would be rather tricky to convert your boot drive to GPT. Windows 10 has special tool for this mbr2gpt, that can do this automatically. But windows 7 doesn't have it and all the conversion would have to be done manually. Possible - yes, but really tricky.

Oh, I just found that I've clicked the wrong thing and the drives info wasn't showing...

The all 3 Drives (SSD, HDD1, HDD2) have currently MBR Partition Types. So the SSD itself must be specific partition type, according to the type of the OS that is currently installed and what the Mobo supports (Legacy Boot - BIOS / UEFI).

So when I'm reinstalling the OS (After I finish all the stuff with the junk on the drives) with Win 10 I will need to change the Mobo settings to UEFI Boot Mode, select "Newer OS - Win 8.1+" (I think the setting was named something similar), open the CMD in the Windows Installer, convert the SSD to GPT Partition Type, install everything then backup the data from my drives, convert them to GPT and quickly re-format them. (And probably install some software to check for errors / bad sectors, just in case).

 

[SkyNetRising]

That's a lot of work. 😉
Well yes - you need Windows 10 to use Direct X 12. But that's about the only gain you're getting there.

 

[VideoklipBG]

That's a lot of work. 😉
Well yes - you need Windows 10 to use Direct X 12. But that's about the only gain you're getting there.

Well, it isn't that much work or trouble for me. I'm usually trying to find what works best for me, the most efficient and useful.

The data checking, every thing one by one, transferring and sorting will consume maybe ten times more time and effort than everything. Also not to forget all the video files, rendering and re-encoding for saving storage and so.

Firstly I thought that Win 10 is not worth it, especially when I had stable, newly installed OS, just for the upgrade to DX12.
Because of all the instabilities, unreliable updates and restarts, collecting data and information, consuming resources, background processes, everything.
I do not know how quickly I will get used to it, but we will see. Hoping not to encounter big problems, so... Yeah. 😀