Formatting Hard Drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tom
  • Start date Start date
T

Tom

I recently purchased a new hard drive and XP home. I
want to format the hard drive for best performance. The
hard drive is a Maxtor which comes with install software
and formats the hard drive with this software. Should I
use this method or should I let XP format using the
Windows software? I am concerned about cluster size and
if it will make any difference which way I format the new
hard drive?
 
The install software that usually comes with hard drive is for the occasion
where the OS to be installed does not recognize the drive and/or it's size.
I would first start with the WindowsXP own installation which has a build in
format and then if that gives you problem, try this driver.
 
This really shouldn't make any difference. A formatted
NTFS drive has a "defualt" cluster size and it is best
not to alter this unless you really know what the effects
will be. Booting from the Windows CD and formatting
should be okay, using the manufacturers disk should be
okay. After all the disk manufacturer should not be
supllying a utility which will cause the drive any "harm"
or degrade its performance.
 
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