Do I need to full format a new SMR external hard drive (alien.top)

submitted 10 months ago by Silversadness@alien.top to c/datahoarder@selfhosted.forum

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Hi guys, i have a few questions. So i just return my Seagate Backup Plus because there's a problem with it, and Seagate gave me a new external HDD, it's a 2TB Seagate One Touch, and from what i read it's an SMR type.

While researching what to do with a new hard drive on the subreddit, i came across suggestions to perform a full format so the bad sector is getting checked (in windows) then do a long SMART test.

From what i've gathered, a full format involves writing zeroes to the drive. now, my questions are:

For a new external hard drive with SMR type, is it recommended to perform a full format? Will it potentially make the drive slower because it fills the drive with zeroes?
Currently I've already completed a full format on the drive, and I've noticed that after one hour, the drive's light is still on, and the drive hasn't spin down. Normally, it would spin down within just a few minutes. Could this be a result of the full format process?

Thanks in advance!

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[-] dr100@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

Nobody knows absolutely for sure, but if your drive has TRIM (I think most/all WD SMRs and probably a number of Seagates by now too) it should be enough to blkdiscard everything (it's an instant operation, can be done specifically or it's done sometimes by various tools when formatting, removing partitions, etc.).

2TB drives probably shouldn't be bought anymore with SSDs solidly into double digits and dipping lower and lower.

[-] Silversadness@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

Nobody knows absolutely for sure, but if your drive has TRIM (I think most/all WD SMRs and probably a number of Seagates by now too) it should be enough to blkdiscard everything (it's an instant operation, can be done specifically or it's done sometimes by various tools when formatting, removing partitions, etc.).

When i look at the information from crystaldiskinfo, it doesn't support TRIM:( is there anyway to make a non-TRIM SMR drive know that we're erasing the disk?

In your opinion, is it worth it if i return it and just do a quick format on a new one? so i can get a good performance on the first write?

thanks in advance!

this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023

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