how to reformat Hard Drive

[jnhatfield]

My G5 HD has been VERY slow for a long time. Disk Utility will not repair it. It says it has bad blocks. I downloaded a spyware detection thing that said I had 31 instances of malware, but it would not repair it because it was for PC only. I have ProtecMac Antivirus, it has never detected any problems. Is ProtecMac antivirus just a lame program or was the PC virus finder I downloaded for free just trying to sell me something?

I was told if I reformat the HD it will tell it to ignore the bad blocks as it writes new data on the HD, virtually eliminating the problem of the bad blocks. Is this accurate? Will Disk utility be able to repair future problems if I erase the HD? I assume it would also erase any viruses/trojan horses, spyware, etc. True? Is using Disk Utility to erase the HD the same as reformatting the HD, or do I need an external disk repair utility like DiskWarrior or TechTools to truly reformat the HD? Or can I hook up to my MacBook pro via firewire and use the disk utility in the MacBook to reformat the HD in the G5? Or should I just buy a new HD? This HD is only about three years old, it is the second HD I have had in this machine.

Thanks for your attention to this.
Jack

 

[jnhatfield]

test

this is just a test message to see if I am getting the thread. I'm a new member. sorry.

 

[Schroedinger]

When you do the reformat tell Disk Utility to zero out the drive. This will force writes to every sector and this way the internals of the drive will recognize the bad sectors and take them out of service.

However, this is a bad sign and you should think about replacing the drive. It's probably going to die soon.

 

[jnhatfield]

how to reformat Hard Drive

Thanks. i can't believe a hard drive won't last more then three years...The original factory drive lasted about five...I thought THAT was crappy.

Jack