Benefit of zero-out erase on older hdd in newer MacBook?

[davidg4781]

I bought a newer MacBook and plan to put my larger hdd in it when I install Lion.

I read there are some benefits to doing a zero-out erase before installing an OS. Is it really that worth it? It's a 750GB drive and will take forever. I don't want to wait that long to play with my new Mac.

 

[Vizin]

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[davidg4781]

Thanks! Didn't think it'd take this long to back up everything though. May go to bed and just get up early tomorrow to finish the job.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

I read there are some benefits to doing a zero-out erase before installing an OS. Is it really that worth it?

The advantage is, that the drive firmware can find and mark bad blocks on the HDD. Bad blocks are normal, but dangerous. If a part of a file, or worse, a part of the file system is within a damaged block, you could lose important files. So take the time to zero out your fresh or used HDD.