Quick format vs. regular format

Posted by Vic Laurie
March 20, 2007

Sometimes we have to bite the bullet and reformat a hard drive. There are two choices for formatting, quick and regular, and I am often asked what the difference is. As the name suggests, quick format gets done in a considerably shorter time. Regular format includes a check for bad sectors on the drive and this process consumes most of the time. Also, a quick format can only be used on a previously formatted disk.

Note that the formatting process deletes the file table and the root directory of a partition or volume but does not actually wipe out the files. Completely cleaning a disk requires a separate utility that writes over the existing data.

Computer management

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