Quote:
Originally Posted by volvo_0ne
HDToolbox-> Low Level Format
What EXACTLY did it do?
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Low Level Format means something different today than it did originally. Other posters explained well what it used to mean but today it just means zero-filling all sectors of the drive, so in essence wiping it back to factory defaults with no partitions. This will in turn also enable the firmware to detect and remap any faulty sectors as they are passed by the format.
On SSDs a low level format could mean secure erase which is releasing all flash cells. This also restores the drive to the original state.