Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Author Topic: NTFS Quick Format?  (Read 2111 times)

Description:

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline ChaosLordTopic starter

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2003
  • Posts: 2608
    • Show only replies by ChaosLord
    • http://totalchaoseng.dbv.pl/news.php
NTFS Quick Format?
« on: March 03, 2011, 07:53:37 PM »
I need to format this 2TB Samsung drive.
Using Windows XP, I have selected NTFS with 64K blocks.

It has a box for "Quick Format" that I can check.  Should I or not?

It has been 2 years since I formatted an NTFS drive.  I have forgotten what to do. :(
Wanna try a wonderfull strategy game with lots of handdrawn anims,
Magic Spells and Monsters, Incredible playability and lastability,
English speech, etc. Total Chaos AGA
 

Offline kd7ota

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2002
  • Posts: 1433
    • Show only replies by kd7ota
    • http://www.qrz.com
Re: NTFS Quick Format?
« Reply #1 on: March 03, 2011, 08:03:10 PM »
My thing about a full format and a quick format was...

If you are using a drive for the very FIRST time, I would do a full format just to be safe to be sure there isn't any errors down the drive. After you do it once, quick formats are fine after that.

But... I noticed in Windows 7, when you prepare the drive, you do not have the choice to do a full format, it just prepares (quick formats) the drive.

Mainly up to you. Honestly, just do a quick format and use it.  If magically there are any drive errors, it will show up. :P

Figured if you dont even have the full format options when installing windows 7, then you may as well quick format in windows xp.
-=-=-=-=-=-
Mine!  :-D
 

Offline ChaosLordTopic starter

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2003
  • Posts: 2608
    • Show only replies by ChaosLord
    • http://totalchaoseng.dbv.pl/news.php
Re: NTFS Quick Format?
« Reply #2 on: March 03, 2011, 08:07:29 PM »
Your reasoning sounds reasonable. :)
But then why doesn't Quick Format default to "Yes" on Windows XP?

This really confuses me.
Wanna try a wonderfull strategy game with lots of handdrawn anims,
Magic Spells and Monsters, Incredible playability and lastability,
English speech, etc. Total Chaos AGA
 

Offline actung_bab

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Oct 2006
  • Posts: 650
    • Show only replies by actung_bab
Re: NTFS Quick Format?
« Reply #3 on: March 03, 2011, 08:19:25 PM »
Quote from: ChaosLord;619357
Your reasoning sounds reasonable. :)
But then why doesn't Quick Format default to "Yes" on Windows XP?

This really confuses me.
not sure but l usually use quick format on portable 160 gb drive l use on pc ps3
etc but use fat32 on this drive because have to to be read by the ps3
and used this for years with no probs a few times its said need to check for errors
but u just click quick scan and fixed in seconds never had to reformat
« Last Edit: March 03, 2011, 08:37:36 PM by actung_bab »
Acthung baby
http://telnet://midnight-blue.dyndns.org
Cnet 4.60 PRO bbs software
Amiga 1200 020 14 mhz mbz 1200 z pcmcia network card 4 meg ram 2 Gb scandisk cf
Amiga 2000 020
Amiga 4000 030 25 mhz broken
Amiga x 4 1200
x 6 Sony Ps 3 Orginal 60 gb 4  port usb 160 gb hd (os 4.1 ready :-)
what can i say i like thse machines
x 3 XBOX 360 1x xbox 360 slim
url=http://avatars.jurko.net][/
 

Offline mongo

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2002
  • Posts: 964
    • Show only replies by mongo
Re: NTFS Quick Format?
« Reply #4 on: March 03, 2011, 08:21:06 PM »
Quote from: kd7ota;619356
My thing about a full format and a quick format was...

If you are using a drive for the very FIRST time, I would do a full format just to be safe to be sure there isn't any errors down the drive. After you do it once, quick formats are fine after that.


On an IDE drive any bad blocks are automatically re-mapped. You'll never see any errors unless the number of bad blocks is more than the number of blocks reserved for re-mapping, in which case you have a very bad drive.
 

Offline Nostalgiac

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Join Date: Dec 2006
  • Posts: 408
    • Show only replies by Nostalgiac
Re: NTFS Quick Format?
« Reply #5 on: March 03, 2011, 08:36:11 PM »
Quote from: mongo;619361
On an IDE drive any bad blocks are automatically re-mapped. You'll never see any errors unless the number of bad blocks is more than the number of blocks reserved for re-mapping, in which case you have a very bad drive.


correct - the only difference between full and fast is that a full one nulls out all blocks, while the fast only sets up a new/empty dir structure.

Tom UK
2000/2060/128mb/2320/2gb/C64-3D/Hydra-Aminet on OS 3.9

c128/1541/1750/1351 with Dolphin Dos and eprom burner
 

Offline mongo

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2002
  • Posts: 964
    • Show only replies by mongo
Re: NTFS Quick Format?
« Reply #6 on: March 03, 2011, 08:41:22 PM »
Quote from: Nostalgiac;619368
correct - the only difference between full and fast is that a full one nulls out all blocks, while the fast only sets up a new/empty dir structure.

Tom UK


Full just reads the blocks and checks for errors, it doesn't write to them.
 

Offline Piru

  • \' union select name,pwd--
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Aug 2002
  • Posts: 6946
    • Show only replies by Piru
    • http://www.iki.fi/sintonen/
Re: NTFS Quick Format?
« Reply #7 on: March 03, 2011, 09:00:46 PM »
I wouldn't bother with the full format, IMHO it's just waste of time.
 

Offline Karlos

  • Sockologist
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2002
  • Posts: 16867
  • Country: gb
  • Thanked: 4 times
    • Show only replies by Karlos
Re: NTFS Quick Format?
« Reply #8 on: March 03, 2011, 09:14:43 PM »
Reformat as ext4...

Oh wait. Windows. Right :)

Seriously though, unless you have stuff on there you are epic paranoid about (in which case a data "shredder" should be used), quick formatting should be fine.
int p; // A
 

Offline Piru

  • \' union select name,pwd--
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Aug 2002
  • Posts: 6946
    • Show only replies by Piru
    • http://www.iki.fi/sintonen/
Re: NTFS Quick Format?
« Reply #9 on: March 03, 2011, 09:18:55 PM »
Quote from: Karlos;619376
Seriously though, unless you have stuff on there you are epic paranoid about (in which case a data "shredder" should be used), quick formatting should be fine.

Interestingly NTFS full format indeed only is quick format + block verify, that is it doesn't actually erase the data.

You need to use zero-fill tool for that effect.

In fact I never even considered this would be the case until mongo brought it up couple of messages ago.
 

Offline Karlos

  • Sockologist
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2002
  • Posts: 16867
  • Country: gb
  • Thanked: 4 times
    • Show only replies by Karlos
Re: NTFS Quick Format?
« Reply #10 on: March 03, 2011, 09:23:51 PM »
Probably another reason why computer forensics teams love criminals that use windows :lol:
int p; // A