Why does windows formatting take so long?

[IamDavid]

Anyone know? 40+ min. to format a 200gb drive.. I know I should just use something else but I shouldn't have to. Does it do something other programs don't?

 

[Nothinman]

Don't choose a full format next time, it does a bad block test to test the disk medium, if you choose quick it'll only take a few seconds. But if it's a new drive it's a good idea to put it through some paces to make sure it's not going to fail right away, especially if it's a cheap, consumer ATA drive.

 

[RebateMonger]

I normally use Quick Format, except when I have a drive that I'm concerned about. As Nothinman notes, a Quick Format only takes a few seconds. I haven't been bitten by this so far, and have formatted more than a few drives over the years.

Another option is to use the Quick Format, but after you get Windows installed, let Windows run a full surface scan overnight. You'll get the same assurance that there's no initial problem with the drive, but don't have to sit around waiting for that long format.

 

[corkyg]

The reason it takes so long is because full format of a 200 GB drive is a sector by sector process. As was stated, if quick format can do the job, it is much faster. As hard drives get bigger and bigger, full format will take longer and longer.

 

[LouPoir]

Quick format - 10 seconds

 

[DasFox]

Originally posted by: IamDavid
Anyone know? 40+ min. to format a 200gb drive.. I know I should just use something else but I shouldn't have to. Does it do something other programs don't?

Well it's true what they are saying doing a full scan checks for bad blocks/sectors

But on a faster hdd it's not going to take 40mins to format a 200GB drive.

What's your hdd?

ALOHA

 

[ChronoReverse]

On a modern CPU it will still take 40 minutes to do a full format of a 200GB drive. The limitation is the hard drive, not the CPU power.

 

[JasonCoder]

Low level format FTW.

 

[stash]

Originally posted by: JasonCoder
Low level format FTW.

I bet you're a Gentoo fan.

 

[Nothinman]

Low level format FTTW

TFTFY.

 

[DasFox]

Originally posted by: ChronoReverse
On a modern CPU it will still take 40 minutes to do a full format of a 200GB drive. The limitation is the hard drive, not the CPU power.

Sheesh you're right, not sure what I was thinking of. I edited the post.

But on my 16MB buffer maxtors it never took that long maybe 20mins.

ALOHA

 

[IamDavid]

Originally posted by: DasFox

Originally posted by: ChronoReverse
On a modern CPU it will still take 40 minutes to do a full format of a 200GB drive. The limitation is the hard drive, not the CPU power.

Sheesh you're right, not sure what I was thinking of. I edited the post.

But on my 16MB buffer maxtors it never took that long maybe 20mins.

ALOHA

It was on a Maxtor 8mb buffer.. Ended up taking almost 50min.. Thanks for the replies.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: IamDavid

Originally posted by: DasFox
But on my 16MB buffer maxtors it never took that long maybe 20mins.

It was on a Maxtor 8mb buffer.. Ended up taking almost 50min.. Thanks for the replies.

Maxtors take longer, 'cuz there are more errors to count. 😉

 

[RebateMonger]

Hmmmm....double post. I SWEAR I only hit "Reply" once!

 

[Dave Richardson]

For heavens sake - you are preparing a drive to use for valuable data storage or even receive an operating system that you may well use for several years. What does 40 minutes matter if it is making sure that there are no serious errors on the drive. I wouldn't object if it took hours.

 

[IamDavid]

Originally posted by: Dave Richardson
For heavens sake - you are preparing a drive to use for valuable data storage or even receive an operating system that you may well use for several years. What does 40 minutes matter if it is making sure that there are no serious errors on the drive. I wouldn't object if it took hours.

In all my linux installations I have never had to wait 50min.. Guess I never used LLF before.. Never had any issues either.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Originally posted by: IamDavid

Originally posted by: Dave Richardson
For heavens sake - you are preparing a drive to use for valuable data storage or even receive an operating system that you may well use for several years. What does 40 minutes matter if it is making sure that there are no serious errors on the drive. I wouldn't object if it took hours.

In all my linux installations I have never had to wait 50min.. Guess I never used LLF before.. Never had any issues either.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why the Vista installer does a quick format. Because everyone else is starting to skip a full format and they don't want to look as slow.

 

[Nothinman]

Unfortunately, this is the reason why the Vista installer does a quick format. Because everyone else is starting to skip a full format and they don't want to look as slow.

There's nothing unfortunate about it, a full format is pointless unless you question the drive's reliability.

 

[Doom Machine]

somethings not right, i have 300 gb drive and it maybe takes 2 minutes if that, although maybe it depends on hardware and ram installed

 

[ChronoReverse]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Unfortunately, this is the reason why the Vista installer does a quick format. Because everyone else is starting to skip a full format and they don't want to look as slow.

There's nothing unfortunate about it, a full format is pointless unless you question the drive's reliability.

True, modern hard drives would detect and remap bad sectors automatically and warn you if you're running out of remappable sectors.

I've started being lazy and using quick format myself =/.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Dave Richardson
For heavens sake - you are preparing a drive to use for valuable data storage or even receive an operating system that you may well use for several years. What does 40 minutes matter if it is making sure that there are no serious errors on the drive. I wouldn't object if it took hours.

You can always do a scandisk later. It's pretty rare to see bad sectors on on brand-new hard drives, so it's hard to justify the extra initial install time that a full format takes. Especially if somebody is paying you for the time it takes.

 

[Nothinman]

You can always do a scandisk later. It's pretty rare to see bad sectors on on brand-new hard drives, so it's hard to justify the extra initial install time that a full format takes. Especially if somebody is paying you for the time it takes.

I'd say the opposite is true, I've seen way too many drives die in the first few days or weeks of use to trust them without putting them through some paces. But I also wouldn't consider a simple chkdsk run a good litmus test for a drive either.

 

[ChronoReverse]

I'd assume he meant chkdsk /R which do the bad sector scan as well.

It's still a good idea to do the check before doing a clean installation. I'd rather find the bad sectors before I put data on them.

 

[Nothinman]

I'd assume he meant chkdsk /R which do the bad sector scan as well.

So would I and that's what I was talking about when I said I wouldn't consider it a good test of a drive.

It's still a good idea to do the check before doing a clean installation. I'd rather find the bad sectors before I put data on them.

Chances are you won't anyway, modern drives automatically remap bad sectors without reporting them back to the driver so you won't find out about any of them until it's out of reserve sectors.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
I'd say the opposite is true, I've seen way too many drives die in the first few days or weeks of use to trust them without putting them through some paces.

Infant mortaility is certainly a concern. But I wonder how often a one-time initial scan would catch this kind of failure?