Disk Utility - Format

Hi All,
A rather dumb question, but for the purpose of peace of mind for backups, here goes.
I have a few external HD's, which I have formatted using disk utility. The data on there must be deleted in an unrecoverable sense so I used the 7 - Pass Erase.
My question: When plugging in an External HD, after opening disk utility, in the left window is show:
465.8 GB Seagate FreeAgent
XXX Files
where "XXX" = My real name.
Which one do I select to format or does it not really matter. The reason I asked is because I did a format and selected the first option i.e. 465.8 GB..., but after format completion the "XXX File's" still remained there. I just left the disk name as Untitled during the format option selection.
I hope the above makes sense.
Thank for any feedback
Ciao

SKYTORT wrote:
When plugging in an External HD, after opening disk utility, in the left window is show:
465.8 GB Seagate FreeAgent
Which one do I select to format or does it not really matter.
Select 465.8 GB Seagate FreeAgent (It is the upper icon and represents the entire drive. The xxx lower icon is only the volume.
-mj

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Message was edited by: Revearti

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keg55 wrote:
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Koinseb
Message was edited by: Koinseb

Does Disk Utility defragment files during clone?

Scenario:
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Does the above procedure actually defragment file clusters or just remove fragmented free space during the 'clone' process?
Thanks in advance for knowledge.
Note - this question was prompted by a post regarding fragmented Aperture library databases but I realized this is probably a better place to raise the question.

No. When you clone to a freshly formatted drive the result is by definition defragmented. That is because the destination's sector blocks are sequential. Fragmentation only occurs when a file is changed and requires more space than was used by the previous version. If there isn't a contiguous block of space available then the OS uses any available block elsewhere. This results in the file not being saved in a contiguous block of space - hence fragmentation.
Therefore, when you clone a drive to a newly formatted drive the result is a fully defragmented drive. This is the fastest and safest way to defragment a drive: clone it to a newly formatted drive, erase the fragmented drive, then clone back.
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When my iMac rebooted an screen appeared saying that I had a drive not recognized and gave me the option to initialize it. A second failed attempt, Disk Utility froze again.
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As expected, the disk formatted with MacDrive was recognized OK by my iMac. As soon as I connected it Time Machine offered to use it, I accepted and my first backup completed some time last night (I left it working and went to sleep).
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