Quick vs. complete format

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Guest

-I keep hearing the terms “complete format†and “regular format†followed by
the statement that they are better or more complete than a “Quick Formatâ€. If
I use the Disk Management tool, or if I go to My Computer, right-click the
drive and select Format, the only choice I get from either procedure is Quick
Format. Can someone tell me how to perform a complete or regular format? And
how to decide whether to do a complete or quick format? Thank you,.-
Robert
 
Robert said:
-I keep hearing the terms “complete format†and “regular format†followed
by
the statement that they are better or more complete than a “Quick Formatâ€.
If
I use the Disk Management tool, or if I go to My Computer, right-click the
drive and select Format, the only choice I get from either procedure is
Quick
Format. Can someone tell me how to perform a complete or regular format?
And
how to decide whether to do a complete or quick format? Thank you,.-
Robert
Click to expand...

For the normal user a Quick Format is just fine. It makes the whole
partition available for use. However, it doesn't actually erase anything
and someone with the right tools can recover any data that hasn't actually
been overwritten.

In fact, although the tools are somewhat more expensive, the same can be
said of a full format.
 
Frank Saunders: Thank you for your responce. I certainly appreciate the help
I get from Microsoft's Newsgroups/
Robert
 
In a format (full), during the sector scan, the locations of possible files
are noted. After the scan, a new file table is written based on that sector
scan. Any bad areas resulting from the sector scan are mapped out for file
table data. If bad areas are excessive, the format will fail.

Files are not removed from the partition in a quick format per the weblink
statement. Rather, the file table is rewritten, ignoring any present files
in the area of the partition. All possible file locations are considered
usable based on the prior file tables data as no sector scan was performed
(making any files previously written invisible). If bad areas are existent,
but not detected as no sector scan was performed, data reads/writes will
fail in those areas. As noted in the weblink, chkdisk /r will "fix" this
problem (if not excessive, which it doesn't state).

--
Dave
Profound is we're here due to a chance arrangement
of chemicals in the ocean billions of years ago.
More profound is we made it to the top of the food
chain per our reasoning abilities.
Most profound is the denial of why we may
be on the way out.
 
Hey Frank, what about a "Scrubber" application?.. does one make any
difference, or are they worthless?.. And how do they compare to a full
format?

----------------------------------------
 
Pancho said:
Hey Frank, what about a "Scrubber" application?.. does one make any
difference, or are they worthless?.. And how do they compare to a full
format?
Click to expand...


Some of them work pretty well. They're just about all better than a full
format.
 
I'd been asking around for some time without a straight answer..

Thank you!

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