This doesnt make sense

[WaTaGuMp]

My buddy made the jump to Win Xp last night and before doing that of course he had to format the new HD, with win xp you have 2 options for formatting the drive one says quick and one doesnt so he chose quick. To our amazement the drive formatted in less then 2 minutes and it was 120gig, so why do they even offer 2 choices to format when you can do the quick one and be done in no time. Like I said just doesnt make sense.

 

[jvang125]

quick format only writes the file system while a regular format analyzes the drive and removes all previous data by writing a bunch of zeros to the drive. if you're starting out with a brand new hd, it'll be safe to use just quick format but if there's previous data on there, you should do a regular format.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I see it sure did work well for his situation.

 

[Soybomb]

windows quick format

Originally posted by: jvang125
quick format only writes the file system while a regular format analyzes the drive and removes all previous data by writing a bunch of zeros to the drive. if you're starting out with a brand new hd, it'll be safe to use just quick format but if there's previous data on there, you should do a regular format.

Writing zeros to the drive would be a low level format, thats not happening. The full format checks for bad sectors.

 

[Nothinman]

quick format just overwrites the old filesystem with a new, empty one.
full format tests the drive for bad sectors.

I would be more inclined to do a full format on a new drive because it has more of a chance of failing. If the drive has worked for you already for a year it should be good for a few more years.

I always run new drives through a 24-hr stress test before putting any data on them because if a drive is going to fail it's most likely going to happen early.