Formatting FAT32 hdd

[zayened]

Why does Windows XP allow me to do an NTFS quick format on a FAT32 hard drive? I am doing a clean install on a 60gig and during the install when it asks me to format, i went you Format using NTFS file format (quick), and it worked! or did it? it was formatting for about 30 seconds and then it started copying files. I remember trying to do that a long time ago (when it first came out) and it gave me an error telling me "Windows cannot do a quick format on this hard drive. Do you want to format it now?" What has changed? BTW, this is Windows XP Pro with SP1 slipstreamed into it.

 

[SOSTrooper]

If your HD has no partition on it (either wiped out using fdisk, or just bought from store), FAT32 cannot perform a quick format. It'll prompt you with the thorough format (which takes long). With NTFS, you can either quick format, or thorough format, regardless if your HD's new or not. So in your case, the WinXP installation wiped out your old FAT32 partition and created a new NTFS partition and formatted it with NTFS in less than 10 seconds. That's what a quick NTFS format is all about.