Formatting, To Quick or Not?

[spacey]

Hey guys, I've always wondered when installing XP, there's the option to do the Quick format or the Full NTFS format. What's the catch if you do the Quick one? What do you guys normally pick?

Thanks.

[Fotix]

I wipe out the entire disk file structure first and do a Full NTFS format.

[Impulfusion]

I normally do Quick, I dont know what it really does to do the full one...

[random_user_uk_1234]

I think the full (not quick) scans for bad sectors.

Quick format just places a marker at the beginning of the drive saying its empty (or so i've been told)

[Spyder Veteran]

  spacey said:

Hey guys, I've always wondered when installing XP, there's the option to do the Quick format or the Full NTFS format. What's the catch if you do the Quick one? What do you guys normally pick?

Thanks.

funny you should ask this because I never knew the difference either. i was talking to an MS tech support person the other day and thought to ask this question for the hell of it. he said "theres nothing wrong with using the quick format option". then went on to say.. "save yourself some time and use quick. Microsoft wouldn't have put it there if it was bad to use."

the last sentence made be chuckle but he does have a point

[spacey]

Fotix, how do you "wipe the entire disk structure"?

Well I was wondering if perhaps Full format resulted in a "cleaner" install, less fragmentation or something, so Windows would behave faster.

Spyder, if Quick is so great without any drawbacks, would would anyone want to do Full or why would they even include that option?

[Fotix]

I erase the existing file system, so there's nothing remaining on it [the disk]. I use Ranish Partition Manager to do it. I'm just anal retentive about formatting. :|

:)

[nosocks]

a quick format just deletes everything, an uncondiitional format overwrites everything with emptiness

[Spyder Veteran]

  spacey said:

Spyder, if Quick is so great without any drawbacks, would would anyone want to do Full or why would they even include that option?

/edit .. removed my thoughts because I was wrong. I posted a Microsoft Support article below that explains the differences, and why you'd want to use one over the other.

[null_]

I do a full format of NTFS if I am formatting if Windows has been on for about 6 months or more, otherwise I just do a quick, I don't see the difference either besides the time it takes to complete the format.

[Tobbe]

A quick format clears the file allocation table... the table where the file information is stored(offset, size, name etc. etc.), while full format clears the data section where the raw data is stored.

(when it clears the data section, it will find bad sectors)

If you are going to give away the drive to someone else, full is recommended but if you're only clearing your system you only have to use quick.

By the way, there are software that can recover files by just reading the raw data... such as Norton UnErase.

Even if you clear the data section you can still recover it, the magnetism remains and you can recover it with special equipment that costs $$$$$.

Going to keep the drive: Quick Format

It's going to change owner: Full

[Spyder Veteran]

here ya go.. straight from Microsoft..

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;302686

  Quote

When you choose to run a regular format on a volume, files are removed from the volume you are formatting and the hard disk is then scanned for bad sectors. The scan for bad sectors is responsible for the majority of the time it takes to format a volume.

If you choose the Quick format option, format removes files from the partition, but does not scan the disk for bad sectors. This option should only be used if your hard disk has been previously formatted and you are sure that your hard disk is not damaged.

If you installed Windows on a partition that was formatted by using the Quick format option, you can also check your disk by using the chkdsk /r command after the installation of Windows has completed.

[dougkinzinger]

Quick is fine. All is does is just mark the drive as clean, but without actually erasing anything until each sector is overwritten. A full NTFS format recreates all the sector data. Either is fine, neither has ANY performance difference in the long run, other than a quicker format time ;)

[xp1ode]

what i do is use partigion magic and wipe everythig out using the NTFS formart and then when is time to install winxp i do a quick format because ive already done one with partigion magic so no point in doing it twice, den after that every first of the month i do a disk defrag and my computer runs pretty good, never had any problems

[Spyder Veteran]

  dougkinzinger said:

Quick is fine. All is does is just mark the drive as clean, but without actually erasing anything until each sector is overwritten. A full NTFS format recreates all the sector data. Either is fine, neither has ANY performance difference in the long run, other than a quicker format time ;)

actually according to the quote from the MS KB article I posted, quick and full do exactly the same thing format wise. the only difference, it appears, is full scans the drive for bad sectors after formatting, which is why it takes so much longer.

[Acezo]

I play it safe and always do a full format...nothing gives me more headaches then when Windows puts its installation file in a bad sector, then tries to boot to it, crashing (then restarting and doing the same; this has happened to me twice).

I guess I just have bad luck :(