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Formatting types for hard drives?

I am installing four new hard drives in this build. Doing a fresh install of Win XP Pro, I need to format the first drive and it offered a 'Quick Format' or something like regular formatting. I used regular and it has taken an hour and twenty minutes. Is there any problem with using the Quick Format? What it is the difference, excluding the time consumed?

2 Answers

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  • π²
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    The regular format scans for bad sectors, like with Scandisk/Chkdsk.

    When you choose to run a regular format on a volume, files are removed from the volume that you are formatting and the hard disk is scanned for bad sectors. The scan for bad sectors is responsible for the majority of the time that it takes to format a volume.

    If you choose the Quick format option, format removes files from the partition, but does not scan the disk for bad sectors. Only use this option if your hard disk has been previously formatted and you are sure that your hard disk is not damaged.

  • 1 decade ago

    I have just recently reformatted as well, and i decided to use the quick.. it took 2 minutes.. no joke for a 160gb harddrive.. and as far as im concerned there is no difference at all..

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