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Tue, 19 Jun 2012 07:49:28 -0500 |
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On 6/18/2012 5:48 PM, Jacob Smith wrote:
> Thank you very much I understand a lot better now, but if you don'
> mind I've got a couple more questions. What happens if an error (cut
> power/communication) causes one of the links not to be recognized, but the
> other one still is? what does formatting do?
>
I don't know what redundancies Windows (or any other operating system)
has built into it, but if an unrecoverable error occurs, then there are
several possibilities. A file could be lost or corrupted or many files
or the whole file system. If you trash the file system, then you need
to reformat and start from scratch.
There is a low-level format done at the factory which maps out the bits
on the platter and puts the bad spots into a table of bad spots. High
level formatting divides the disk into sectors (size depending on the
file system) or "groups" as I called them, each one containing the
links, the data area, and whatever. Go to Wikipedia and search for NTFS
and examine it and the related links. Also check out "File Allocation
Table."
So, in short, formatting builds the file system on a drive. It creates
all the necessary tables, divides up the drive into sectors, and writes
links and other necessary information to the sectors.
As you can see from the articles in Wikipedia, it can get pretty
complicated. My knowledge is dated and sort of over-simplified, but
it's all I really need for what I do.
Dean
PCBUILD's List Owners:
Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
Mark Rode<[log in to unmask]>
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