Format quick or slow

[valerian]

hi
does it make any difference the slow or quick format option in windows
apart from watching paint dry??

 

[semi-pro waster]

I'm not 100% sure but I think the general answer is not a great deal, the quick format just wipes the fat table record so that Windows thinks that there is nothing there and can over-write. The full format option performs a scan for bad sectors and wipes the record. Most of the time you will be fine with a quick format but if the drive might not be 100% you should perform a full format.

You can check in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

 

[noxidjkram@hotm]

If you have a new drive or are changing filing system (i.e. FAT32 to NTFS) then do the slow format.

If you have a drive that has already been formatted with the filing system you require then you can usually get away with a quick format without any issues.

M