Surely it must be possible for the manufacturers to implement a system that pre-formats hard disks? It takes FoReVeR!

That would be a stupid idea.

I'd want mine formatted to HFS+. Unless I wanted them formatted to NTFS. Unless I wanted them formatted to HFS. Unless I wanted them formatted to FAT.

Jesus, it only takes PartitionMagic about 15 seconds to format a 250gb SATA drive. Get over it.

Seconded

Have you ever tried ntfs quick format? 8O

I think some of them come preformatted, albeit not without problems.

When I got a WD3200KS, i just quick formatted it to NTFS, and it worked, but, as a dynamic disk. Using win XP disk management tool, I removed the volume and partition, but in vain. The option that would allow me to convert it back to basic did not appear. Had to do a raw reformat.

2 MeseRecifier: What version of PM do you use? I had a bad experience with 8.0. In two separate cases I merged partitions, and both times it screwed up, making me lose data.

As stupid an idea as pre-formatted floppy disks was...

And which version of PM does that? It really formats the whole disk in 15 seconds? Or just a quick format? Sounds very odd to me...

I'm pretty sure he meant a quickformat. There's no way (mechanically/physically) a drive can format itself RAW in a few seconds.

Exactly... So I'm a bit confused as to why he said it's a stupid idea. Let's say you buy a 250gb hard disk preformatted as NTFS, but you need it formatted as EXT2, well... there's no difference for you, as you'd need to fomat it to EXT2 anyway if it came unformatted.

Surely, this isn't a stupid idea. Use a HDD straight out of the box? Especially the new 1TB drives...

Or am I just being far too idealistic?

Another question about formatting HDDs...

I have a Seagate USB2 HDD http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index. [...] cale=en-US

These drives come pre-formatted as FAT32. This limits you because you cannot store a single file that is greater than 4GB on it (FAT32 limitation).

Now, is it possible to format it to NTFS? I heard somewhere that the drive will become unusable if i do this...

I formatted an external drive a number of times.
Had an old laptop lying around, ripped a 40gb seagate drive out of it, bought an external enclosure (usb 2.0) and now i use it instead of a pendrive. I formatted it using disk management tool in windows, I formatted it using partition magic.

Also, you can convert it to NTFS, instead of formatting. keep all your data.
Not sure of it's gonna work witn an external drive, coz PM does the procedure before logging on to windows. But, there's a way around that too - take the box apart, and inside you will have a standard ide/sata drive. Stick it in your computer, convert to NTFS, then reassemble the enclosure. Voilas.

OK, so i can format/convert it without any problems? So then why do they pre-format these drives to FAT32?

It saves them money not partitioning and formatting your drive. Linuxer's would probably protest if they preforamtted the drive with a Windows protocol, etc.
To avoid controversy I guess they leave it up to the consumer.
Most consumers would be happy without having to go through the process and have it preformatted with NTFS.

The poll itself is evidence enough that your idea has limited merit. There is no one filesystem everyone uses and it would be a bit selfish to think they should pre-format to whatever you in particular want to use (which is what I suspect started this whole daydream post).

Remember something - there is a reason it takes awhile to format, anyone who could just wish it away with a quick format that didn't check the drive would be askingn for trouble - it is quite prudent to check a medium (at the very least) one time before relying on it for data storage.

who knows, maybe you'll want to install windows 98/95 on it. XP/NT/2000 will work on NTFS, but 95/98 will not. maximizing compatibility from the start I suppose.

OK, but with regards to my situation, this is a sealed unit from seagate. ie: You cannot remove this drive from its casing.. And since its USB2, you also cannot install any OS on it.

All i want to know is whether its ok to format this drive to NTFS.. It will always be used as a USB2 drive.