How long should it take to zero an 80GB drive? More than 25 min?

[mattkime]

combo updater didn't go and then it wouldn't boot. maybe zeroing the drive would make it work but i don't have the time to waste on it

[MacMagus]

> writing to sectors should, in thoery, map out bad sectors. i think the "write zeros" option
> does something more intensive to get rid of the intermitent blocks.

Writing zeros does nothing more than write zeros.

It's not like a low-level format a la SCSI at all.

It doesn't map out bad sectors, but it *might* overwrite a region that the OS had trouble writing to before, it *might* get rid of some corrupt data in the boot block and additionally, it makes it a trifle harder for a data recovery tool to snag your deleted data.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107437

[JoeH]

Writing zeros does not directly map out bad sectors. But if a write operation fails to a sector, the drive controller will remap it to a spare.

[Racer X]

so the ultimate end result is essentially the same?

[mattkime]

>>Writing zeros does nothing more than write zeros.

Then why the hell does it take so long??

[JoeH]

Basically, yes. Indirectly it will get some (most?) bad sectors remapped.

[MacMagus]

> so the ultimate end result is essentially the same?

No.

With old fashioned SCSI drives a user can map out an almost unlimited number of bad sectors via low level format.

IDE drives don't permit that. Instead, they have a limited number of bad sectors that they can map out beyond which the drive may become unusable and for most drives, those sectors that have errors will already have been mapped out before zeroing.

But if zeroing forces the drive to map out bad sectors then zeroing an IDE drive can end up exceeding the capacity of the drive's limited number of remapped sectors, which basically means that the drive is toast.

Of course, if you've got a lot of bad sectors cropping up anyway then you're an idiot for zeroing it rather than replacing it.

More info:
http://www2.uic.edu/~aciani1/sector_blues.html#3.2

[MacMagus]

> > Writing zeros does nothing more than write zeros.
>
> Then why the hell does it take so long??

Come back and ask that question again after you've transferred 80GB to that drive and compared times.

[mattkime]

>>Come back and ask that question again after you've transferred 80GB to that drive and compared times.

Careful, I may just do that.

[Joey Cupcakes]

Shouldn't be at all surprised. Single pass on a 400GB drive is 3 hours.