Quick or Normal Format?

[mrlucio]

When doing a fresh install of XP Pro, can I do a quick format or do i have to do the long normal format? What is preferred? Thanks guys...

[doctorgonzo]

With a quick format, the disk is not scanned for bad sectors. A normal format goes over the entire disk to check for bad sectors, which is why it takes longer.

Don't do a quick format unless you know the hard drive's condition. It is better to wait now than to experience data loss later as a result of bad sectors.

Here is the M$ Knowledgebase article about it.

[mrlucio]

Thanks thats all I needed to know.......

[Nuclear Krusader]

Right docgonzo, plus, with the long format you will know immediately if the drive has bad sectors and if it's new you can RMA immediately. Otherwise you would waste time installing Windows to find out.

[Cricket]

You can't use Quick Format if the hard drive has never been formatted normally before. For it's first use you have to do a full format on a new hard drive...you can then do the Quick Format on a partition if you need to later.

Cricket

[andyms18a]

Originally posted by Cricket You can't use Quick Format if the hard drive has never been formatted normally before. For it's first use you have to do a full format on a new hard drive...you can then do the Quick Format on a partition if you need to later. Cricket

i have done quick formats of new drives with xp but only with ntfs file sys not tryed fat32