Low Level Format Tool — Click to enlarge
Developer: HDDGURU.COM
License terms:
- Free for personal/home use (speed is capped at 180 GB per hour which is 50 MB/s)
- Just $3.30 for personal/home use (no speed limit): Order Personal license
- $27.00 per seat for commercial or professional use: Order Commercial license
- Updates are free for life
If you are looking for a commercial license for 3 or more seats (PCs), please contact us and we will provide a discount.
Supported OS: MS Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, Server 2003, 2008, 2008R2
HDD Low Level Format Tool is a utility for low-level hard disk drive formatting.
- Supported interfaces: S-ATA (SATA), IDE (E-IDE), SCSI, SAS, USB, FIREWIRE.
- Big drives (LBA-48) are supported.
- Supported Manufacturers: Maxtor, Hitachi, Seagate, Samsung, Toshiba, Fujitsu, IBM, Quantum, Western Digital, and almost any other not listed here.
- The program also supports low-level formatting of FLASH cards (SD, MMC, MemoryStick and CompactFlash) using a card-reader.
This HDD Low Level Format utility is free for home use. It can erase and Low-Level Format a SATA, IDE, SAS, SCSI or SSD hard disk drive. Will also work with any USB and FIREWIRE external drive enclosures as well as SD, MMC, MemoryStick and CompactFlash media.
An option to quickly wipe partitions and MBR data is available.
WARNING: After running this low level format tool, the whole disk surface will be erased.
Data restoration is impossible after using this utility!
Download Windows Installer (most people will want this option): HDD Low Level Format Tool ver.4.40 setup
Download Windows Executable (works without installation): HDD Low Level Format Tool ver.4.40
Download EULA: End User License Agreement
Frequently asked questions
Q: I only get about 1.0-1.5 MB per second, and my media is supposed to be much faster.A: This is because you are using a very slow interface (1-1.5 MB per second is actually USB 1.0 limit, so you would want to investigate issues with USB ports). Another reason for slow speeds could be that the storage device has some damage.
Q: The tool was formatting at about 10 MB per second. After I bought a license, however, the speed stays the same - 10 MB per second. Why?
A: The tool has 50 MB per second limit in the free mode. If your media is slower than 50 MB/s, then you will not see any speed increase. The tool cannot go any faster than your storage device allows.
Q: Can I install the software and the license key onto a removable media (USB stick or CD/DVD disk)?
A: Yes, simply use the version that does not need installation, unpack it to your media, and then place your license key in the file llftool.license, located in the same folder as the main executable file.
