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quick format vs regular format (HDs)

A

Alex

Diamond Member
whats the difference? why bother doing a long format when the quick format works just as well and saves you a ton of time?

by default i usually do a regular format if its a new HD and a quick on all subsequent formats, but is this strictly necessary?

just another random question... 🙂
 
Long format checks the disk for errors. If it's a brand new drive that you're pretty sure is in good shape then just quick format. If it's a drive that's a few years old you may be better off letting the long format run.
 
You can only do a quick format if the drive has already been formatted. A quick format just deletes the file pointers and makes the drive appear empty to the os.
 
Originally posted by: franguinho
whats the difference? why bother doing a long format when the quick format works just as well and saves you a ton of time?

by default i usually do a regular format if its a new HD and a quick on all subsequent formats, but is this strictly necessary?

just another random question... 🙂
Click to expand...

What you are doing is correct. A cherry drive should always be full format. In fact, I do not believe you can do a short format on an unformatted drive.

 
Originally posted by: corkyg
Originally posted by: franguinho
whats the difference? why bother doing a long format when the quick format works just as well and saves you a ton of time?

by default i usually do a regular format if its a new HD and a quick on all subsequent formats, but is this strictly necessary?

just another random question... 🙂
Click to expand...

What you are doing is correct. A cherry drive should always be full format. In fact, I do not believe you can do a short format on an unformatted drive.
Click to expand...

Correct. If its never been formatted a full format is needed. I only do quick formats if the drive has been used or if its a large capacity drive like over 200 gigs.
 
Originally posted by: corkyg
Originally posted by: franguinho
whats the difference? why bother doing a long format when the quick format works just as well and saves you a ton of time?

by default i usually do a regular format if its a new HD and a quick on all subsequent formats, but is this strictly necessary?

just another random question... 🙂
Click to expand...

What you are doing is correct. A cherry drive should always be full format. In fact, I do not believe you can do a short format on an unformatted drive.
Click to expand...


I've built maybe 35 computers this past year, all using new OEM Seagate hard drives and didn't long format any of them. All worked like a charm with NTFS. Do Seagates come pre-formated?
 
I've done quick formats on brand new Western Digital, Toshiba, and IBM harddrives so its not just a Seagate thing.
 
Originally posted by: Oyeve
Originally posted by: corkyg
Originally posted by: franguinho
whats the difference? why bother doing a long format when the quick format works just as well and saves you a ton of time?

by default i usually do a regular format if its a new HD and a quick on all subsequent formats, but is this strictly necessary?

just another random question... 🙂
Click to expand...

What you are doing is correct. A cherry drive should always be full format. In fact, I do not believe you can do a short format on an unformatted drive.
Click to expand...

Correct. If its never been formatted a full format is needed. I only do quick formats if the drive has been used or if its a large capacity drive like over 200 gigs.
Click to expand...


i guess this way makes sense logically or whatever but according to the other posts it doesnt look like it makes much of a difference... :thumbsup:
 
I usually do quick format regardless of new or old drive. Occasionally I'll do a full format if I have the time.
 
All the 'quick' format does is put a blank index at the start of the drive.

The 'full' format performs a disk health check in addition to the 'quick' format.

If you are convinced of the health of the drive, then a quick format is fine.

However, if your drive is brand-new then you may get some benefit from a full format: many drives ship from the factory with a enhanced diagnostic mode enabled, allowing any maufacturing flaws to be detected and worked around. Because this diagnostic mode hurts performance, it is automatically switched off after a few reboots (usually 5 or 10), so you won't get the full benefit from it unless you give the drive a good workout at this early stage.

Don't rely on a 'full' format to wipe confidential information from a drive - it may not do so. Use a drive wiping tool instead.
 
quick format is decreased security for senesitive documents. your pc only forgets where they are. they can be retrived though.
full format physically changes all the magnetic particles on the plates.
 
Originally posted by: mwmorph
quick format is decreased security for senesitive documents. your pc only forgets where they are. they can be retrived though.
full format physically changes all the magnetic particles on the plates.
Click to expand...

Magnetic particles? I'ver heard everything now!

Actually, data can still be recovered after a format quite easily. All the format does is kill the file "index"
 
Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
You can only do a quick format if the drive has already been formatted. A quick format just deletes the file pointers and makes the drive appear empty to the os.
Click to expand...

Wrong. You can do a quick format on a brand new drive. I do all the time with WD and with Maxtor
 
I quick format all hard drives. If they are old, or brand spankin new, it does not matter.

The only time I ever long format is if I am having problems, or suspect problems with the drive.
 
Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
You can only do a quick format if the drive has already been formatted. A quick format just deletes the file pointers and makes the drive appear empty to the os.
Click to expand...

Wrong. You can do a quick format on a brand new drive. I do all the time with WD and with Maxtor
Click to expand...

If the drive comes with a File System already installed yes you can. However if the drive has no filesystem it does need a full format.

As for security, yes all a quick format and a full format really do are delete the file indexes. TO really kill the files you need to do multiple low level formats. Low Level formats, such as "Writing Zeros" IIRC fills the drive completely with 0's overriting all information, then it deletes all the zeros. Doing this multiple times should be sufficient for anything but Top Secret documents, in which case it would be better to just burn the drive and walk away.

-Kevin
 
Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
As for security, yes all a quick format and a full format really do are delete the file indexes. TO really kill the files you need to do multiple low level formats. Low Level formats, such as "Writing Zeros" IIRC fills the drive completely with 0's overriting all information, then it deletes all the zeros. Doing this multiple times should be sufficient for anything but Top Secret documents, in which case it would be better to just burn the drive and walk away.

-Kevin
Click to expand...

It is considered a government wipe when you write all 0's, then all 1's, then finally all 0's again.
 
Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
Originally posted by: mwmorph
quick format is decreased security for senesitive documents. your pc only forgets where they are. they can be retrived though.
full format physically changes all the magnetic particles on the plates.
Click to expand...

Magnetic particles? I'ver heard everything now!

Actually, data can still be recovered after a format quite easily. All the format does is kill the file "index"
Click to expand...


hey sorry i dont know the scientific name for those magnetic thingys but im no hdd whiz. all i know is my company requires a full format of the hdd beofre sending a system to rma for security reasons.
 
If you are doing a Quick format on a drive that has already been formatted and had some data on it, there will be some stuff left in case you change your mind and want to do an Unformat. So in that case, if you want ALL your drive space available, do a full format.
.bh.
 
I stand corrected. There was a time when quick format did not work on previously unformatted disks. I was unaware that it had changed.
 
Hi, Quick format only ERASES the drive. That is, it marks all entries in the directories and leaves everything else as is. Regular format checks all sectors for errors and marks bad ones. Jim
 
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