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There are 2 types of formatting for hard drives...
1)Low-level Formatting (LLF): is done before partitioning the hard drive. Long time ago users were able to perform a true LLF on your hard drives with the option of interleaving sectors. Nowadays user cannot perform a true LLF, instead what uses are able to do is sudo-LLF / reinitialization / “zero-fill” of the hard drive. which involve writing “0” to every addressable location on the hard disk, which effectively return your hard drive to the state it was in when it left the factory. Since sudo-LLF (s-LLF)write a “0” to every addressable location on the hard disk it can take quite some time, typically few hours depending on your hard disk size, speed and so on. Your hard drive will get quite hot (if not properly ventilated) while Performing a s-LLF and this might reduce the life span of your hard drive and any components nearby. Even if properly ventilated the excess movement of the actuator arm may cause needless wear & tear, so do this only if absolutely required.
2)High-level Formatting (HLF): is done normally after partitioning the hard drive, and there are two main sub-type:
HLF only take little time since it does not read/write to the entire disk.
HLF with defects scan, will take a considerable amount of time due to scanning of defects, this will also heat up your drive if it is not properly ventilated, so it can be bad for the hard drive and components nearby. Even if properly ventilated the excess movement of the actuator arm may cause needless wear and tear. so do this only if absolutely required.
Frequent formatting will not harm your laptop performance/speed, it may even improve performance/speed of your hard disk drive since all clutter and temp file and so on are removed. Just keep in mind the effects of temperature and wear & tear. It all depend on the type of formatting you use.
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