Hard Disk Low Level Format 4.40

Formats hard disks (SATA, SSD, IDE, SCSI, etc.), SD cards, memory sticks, Firewire drives, and CompactFlash media devices using low-level formatting procedures.

As its name suggests, this program can help you perform low-level formats. Although it is intended for hard disks, it can also work on USB flash-memory devices. Moreover, some users report that it was useful to recover pen drives that appeared to be permanently damaged. Although it is true that low-level formatting is an infrequent operation, it can be necessary to solve problems on your drives like those caused by traumatic events that make your disks unresponsive. Similarly, low-level formatting can be used to wipe the data on a disk and eliminate all chances that they can be recovered, which is crucial for preserving your privacy.

The application has a simple yet unattractive interface. In just two steps, you can have a given disk formatted. All it takes is choosing the disk and starting the low-level format. As an additional option, instead of making a complete format, you can ask the program to perform a quick wipe, which means that only existing partitions and the master boot record will be removed while no changes will be actually made on the disk surface. Moreover, you can also check the details as well as the S.M.A.R.T. data (if available) about your device. Unfortunately, once you have picked a device from the initial screen, you cannot go back to select another one, so you should quit the program and restart it instead.

In general, Hard Disk Low Level Format Tool is a useful application with a very specific purpose. Fortunately, it can be used for free. The bad thing about this is that it will continue to nag you with a registration screen every time you start the program, which can be avoided if you pay a small amount of money to get faster formatting speeds.