Difference between Quick and Full Format..

[markkleb]

Most times I am too lazy to wait around for full formatting.

I cant imagine they would give you 2 choices unless there was a difference to them.

Also I think I remember hearing someone talk about a really slow way to format that was even better.

Can anyone enlighten me (and others) that are noobs to formatting.

 

[Toxcity]

I believe that a quick format doesn't physicaly delete all files and folders.

And a full format does the lot..

If im wrong please shout at me!

I would aways recommend a full format.. its cleaner.. And it only takes 10 mins..

 

[Phnom_Penh]

Low Level is really slow, and resets all the sectors, whereas a normal high level format scans the disk for bad sectors and sets up the file system and an empty boot sector. The quick format does exactly the same, but it doesn't scan the disk for bad sectors.

Neither quick or normal delete the files.

 

[Toxcity]

Low Level is really slow, and resets all the sectors, whereas a normal high level format scans the disk for bad sectors and sets up the file system and an empty boot sector. The quick format does exactly the same, but it doesn't scan the disk for bad sectors.

Neither quick or normal delete the files.

Thanks for the info!

I remember now that Low Level formatting turns the whole drive to 0s!

 

[markkleb]

Thanks for the info guys.:worship:

 

[Phnom_Penh]

Thanks for the info!

I remember now that Low Level formatting turns the whole drive to 0s!

hmm deja vu, linky .

Although technically speaking you're right .

 

[equk]

quick format just resets the FAT

Not sure how advantageous normal format is over quick, as if the FAT is cleared/randomised the data will just overwrite what was there before as the filesystem doesn't know there is anything there

I think there was a thread about this a month or two ago tho?

High-level formatting is the process of setting up an empty file system on the disk, and installing a boot sector. This alone takes little time, and is sometimes referred to as a "quick format".

User instigated low-level formatting of hard disks was common in the 1980s. Typically this involved setting up the MFM pattern on the disk, so that sectors of bytes could be successfully written to it. With the advent of RLL encoding, low-level formatting grew increasingly uncommon, and most modern hard disks are embedded systems, which are low-level formatted at the factory and thus not subject to user intervention.

 

[Phnom_Penh]

quick format just resets the FAT

think norm format clears the sectors which contain data and low level zero's the disk.

Not sure how advantageous normal format is over quick, as if the FAT is cleared the data will just overwrite what was there before as the filesystem doesn't know there is anything there

I think there was a thread about this a month or two ago tho?

nope they do the same, but QF doesn't scan for bad sectors. MS info. LLF re defines the sectors, it doesn't zero.

 

[equk]

nope they do the same, but QF doesn't scan for bad sectors. MS info. LLF re defines the sectors, it doesn't zero.

Cool

I norm stick with quick format tbh

excellent link aswell explains it better than wikipedia