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How to know if partition/hdd was reformatted?


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label and serial number can be changed by format, although not changed by default.

a formatted volume has no files in it, right? that should be indicative enough i think.

if it is your script that is doing the format, it can log it's activity to a network share.

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UDF:

LFN - support for long file names (over 260 characters)

InputImpose - impose valid characters in an input control

TimeConvert - convert UTC to/from local time and/or reformat the string representation

AMF - accept multiple files from Windows Explorer context menu

DateDuration -  literal description of the difference between given dates

Apps:

Touch - set the "modified" timestamp of a file to current time

Show For Files - tray menu to show/hide files extensions, hidden & system files, and selection checkboxes

SPDiff - Single-Pane Text Diff

 

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Maybe something unique like serial number every time we format the hdd/partition? There is no something like that?

 

yes of course, just talk to microsoft, symantec, and practically all software vendors in the world, present and future, i'm sure they'll be happy to change all the formatting utilities to randomize the serial number upon formatting  ;)

why zero file count is not sufficient?

Signature - my forum contributions:

Spoiler

UDF:

LFN - support for long file names (over 260 characters)

InputImpose - impose valid characters in an input control

TimeConvert - convert UTC to/from local time and/or reformat the string representation

AMF - accept multiple files from Windows Explorer context menu

DateDuration -  literal description of the difference between given dates

Apps:

Touch - set the "modified" timestamp of a file to current time

Show For Files - tray menu to show/hide files extensions, hidden & system files, and selection checkboxes

SPDiff - Single-Pane Text Diff

 

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yes of course, just talk to microsoft, symantec, and practically all software vendors in the world, present and future, i'm sure they'll be happy to change all the formatting utilities to randomize the serial number upon formatting  ;)

why zero file count is not sufficient?

 

:*

Because most of the time it's not a pure format, but restore from previous backup/image ghosting

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Hey Michael,

If I were you, I would make a script that would create a fake important file, like "pfs.dll" in "C:\Windows\System32\".

No one will try to delete it because it will seems to be regular Windows DLL.

Then your script can check if the file exists or not.

If it does, then the hard drive did not get format, else it was :)

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If the volume is NTFS, create an alternate data stream (ADS) under the root directory. These can be deleted only by reformatting and very few people will notice.

BTW, the volume serial number is a timestamp.

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Why does it matter if the drive whether the drive has been formatted or restored from an image? Either way, whatever was on the drive previously is gone and the drive should be empty.

Maybe explain why you need this information and what possible use it could be, because frankly it sounds like you're worried about something and you probably don't need to be.

BTW, formatting a drive does nothing for security, usually all it does is blank out the FAT so that it looks empty but the data is still there on the drive if you use a sector editor.

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