I've just got a new hard drive for my OS + Files, which is better for a brand new unused drive Quick or Full Format?
Quick format just wipes your files. Full format scans for bad sectors. For a brand new drive i'd do a full, and then afterwards if you need to format it again just do a quick one.
I understood that Quick format wiped the headers, whereas full format actually erases the files from the disc as well. I've always used quick format. its a brand new disc so theres little chance of there being any bad sectors, and is is so much quicker
Aye, the last hdd I full formatted was 250GB and that took long enough! I wouldn't want to wait for a 1TB drive!
thats exactly what i've got! and the same thing i was thinking, seems here is just like the internet some say full, some say quick.
i meant the REST of the internet! and technically this is a forum that resides on the internet and not the internet itself
Just do quick. Full goes through the whole drive and wipes all the data proper. Apparently it takes several hours on a 1TB drive. If it's brand new then there's no data on it to wipe anyway, so just do a quick to set it up and lets end this argument >.>
That's one of the best exchanges I've read this week. Anyway, the difference is as Gryphon said - a quick format just wipes the headers, whereas a full format scans the entire disk and checks for bad sectors. If it were me, I would wait until I was about to go to bed, then let it do a full format overnight; it would be ready first thing in the morning and you wouldn't really be sitting there and waiting for it. But that's just me. Since it's a new drive, there probably isn't going to be any real problem with just giving it a quick format. If the drive is bad, you'll find out soon enough anyway. - Diosjenin -
well i've just installed win7 and i didn't even see a full/quick format option just a 'format' option which took a few seconds to do. we'll see how it goes.
Just to confirm the difference as some people above seem to be confused: A full format does NOT wipe the drive, it does a quick format (clears the FAT) then checks each sector to see if it's bad. In both full and quick formats, the data is left on the drive which makes it possible to recover it.
i know which each does i just wondered if any one was particularly better for a blank drive. it seems everyone has their own opinion but no-one seems to know which one, if any, is better.
Quick is better if time is a factor. It's pretty unlikely a new drive will have bad sectors. Having said that, if you can be assed with a full that's the most thorough method.
Then just do whatever it wants you to. If it forces you to do a full it shouldn't take that long, assuming you've partitioned it off into OS and data partitions it will probably let you leave the Data one alone for later.
the 200gb OS and 700gb+ data partitions both took under 1 minute to format in Win7. i heard a 1tb drive full formats in around 4 hours.
I had a problem where I bought a 750gb Samsung F1 and I could quick format it but windows wouldn't install, tried it a few times but no luck. When I tried to do a full format it wouldn't complete so by doing this I found it was faulty. It may take a while to do a full format but at least you know there and then if the drive is okay, I spent about 6 hours p!ssing about trying to get windows to load on a duff brand new drive.
For a new drive , I obviously suggest you guy full format every partition,cause full format can check the drive error .