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My hard drive needs to be formated why?

my macbook pro failed to start up and it gave error message that the har disc fails to mount.service provider says the hard d isc is fine but it has formatedand the os has to be reloaded.i record tv programmes and later burn it in to dvd .it is AVER TV VOLAR GO M which converts analog to digital.will this be the reason for this problem .to burn it to dvd i export it to imovies and then burn it it generates a lot of heat and the exhaust fan rpm goes 5600 rpm.please guide me i need your help to avoid this issue in future.many thanks

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This is a very quick and dirty, non-technical explanation. There are thousands of pages written on the technical explanation. If you wear a pocket protector for your shirt pocket, I am sure you will go there. On new hard drives there are ALWAYS bad sectors. Manufacturers put a large amount of extra sectors on a hard drive to make up for this and be fair. As a drive becomes older they lose magnetism and the number of bad sectors grow. Any information written on a bad sector can and will become corrupt. Bad RAM will also corrupt information and because of virtual memory be put it back on the hard drive making it look like a hard drive problem.

You want to back up your data. Then with disk utilities on your OS X install disk you want to format the hard drive, using the Write Zeros/Zero Out Data option. This option will perform a test on the hard drive as it writes zeros to the drive's platters. During the test, Disk Utility will map out any bad sections it finds on the drive's platters so they can't be used. This helps ensure that you won't be able to store any important data on a questionable section of the hard drive. This format process can take a fair amount of time, depending on the drive's capacity.

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Thank you very much for the timely help&useful suggestions,i am from india after migrating to mac i find it very difficult to get back to windows.in india mac is expensive to replace it once in 2 years but it will be useful to upgrade the hard disc,ram and operating system with your valuble advice,i am obliged to ab cellars for his advice &guidance.once again many thanks

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Thank you for accepting my answer and your kind words.

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Thanks for the great technical description...it's very interesting to hear the details of how a drive works. I have a question, though: Have you found that zeroing out a drive can "fix" a drive that has repeating clicking sounds, takes an inordinate amount of time to image, etc.? I discard a couple hundred drives a month, and I'm always wondering if at least some of them could possibly be easy fixes.

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I am not sure what to say rdklinc. I believe you know when a hard drive is bad and that wood or rubber bumpers can stop the clicking sound :)... just kidding. My answer was based on the Apple provider saying the drive is good and just needed formatted. I did not question their answer since they had physical access to the drive to hear clicks etc... On the serous side. If you go through that many hard drives a month, you might consider selling them for their servo or controller board. Hobbyist would want the servo, people repairing hard drives or doing DATA recovery would want the controller board. I've purchased 5 controller boards in the last few years for DATA retrieval. That doesn't mean you need to save them all, but every dime counts.... On "The Far Side": I almost forgot the platters make great mirrors to mount on the wall to see what is behind you at your computer desk. They also make great wind chimes and scare creatures from the garden :P

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Hah, I'll keep the wind chimes in mind. :-) I do sell them...I've got a guy who buys them all, and he pays well, which is part of why I'm wondering if I'm missing something.

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