Quick Format/Format on Vista & Win7

Jon55

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As you know, when installing XP you were given the option to do either a format or a quick format. With Vista (and now Windows 7) you still given the option to do a format, but the format goes very quickly, so one would assume it's actually doing a quick format.


Is there any way to do a full format when installing Vista or Windows 7 instead of the usual "format" (which is actually a quick format)?
 
Why do you want to do a 'full format' anyways? As far as getting rid of data on the disk goes, it does the exact same procedure as a quick Format does. Obliterates the file table and marks all the storage space as being 'available'. A 'full format' only takes longer because it also does a disk check as well as wiping out the file table.

If you actually want to overwrite all the data on the disk you need to use a 'zero fill' tool, which is something Windows doesn't include. Download the drive maintenance tools from the hard drive manufacturer website and use the zero fill facility included amongst that. You can get those maintenance tools in the form of a bootable disk image.


If you've been operating under the impression that 'Full format' actually wipes all the data off the drive then that's wrong. It's a misconception. Full format just doesn't do that!
 
Quick Format is fine to use in all situations except on a drive where you want to completely wipe out the data. If it's a drive that you plan on keeping in your possession there really is not a need to zero it unless you think someone is going to run off with it.
 
You'd have to use some external utility to do a full format; the Vista/Windows 7 installer is hardcoded for the QuickFormat.
 
Why do you want to do a 'full format' anyways? As far as getting rid of data on the disk goes, it does the exact same procedure as a quick Format does. Obliterates the file table and marks all the storage space as being 'available'. A 'full format' only takes longer because it also does a disk check as well as wiping out the file table.

If you actually want to overwrite all the data on the disk you need to use a 'zero fill' tool, which is something Windows doesn't include. Download the drive maintenance tools from the hard drive manufacturer website and use the zero fill facility included amongst that. You can get those maintenance tools in the form of a bootable disk image.


If you've been operating under the impression that 'Full format' actually wipes all the data off the drive then that's wrong. It's a misconception. Full format just doesn't do that!


Thanks, I know the difference between the two. I want the full format to check for bad sectors. Anyone have any recommended apps in particular?
 
Boot from the Vista Install disk and, rather than going into the installation, choose the 'Repair' option.

Select 'Command prompt' from the options provided.

chkdsk will run from there, with any of the common switches you care to use.
 
Boot from the Vista Install disk and, rather than going into the installation, choose the 'Repair' option.

Select 'Command prompt' from the options provided.

chkdsk will run from there, with any of the common switches you care to use.

Thanks for the tip! I owe you a beer.
 
As far as getting rid of data on the disk goes, it does the exact same procedure as a quick Format does. Obliterates the file table and marks all the storage space as being 'available'. A 'full format' only takes longer because it also does a disk check as well as wiping out the file table.

That is true in XP, but in Vista the "full format" overwrites all the sectors.
 
My sincere and humble apologies!

All this time and I've never realised that the procedure was changed for Vista! It does indeed overwrite the drive. :)
 
Boot from the Vista Install disk and, rather than going into the installation, choose the 'Repair' option.

Select 'Command prompt' from the options provided.

chkdsk will run from there, with any of the common switches you care to use.


So let's say I run chkdsk and it finds bad sectors for whatever reason, and flags them. Will future installations of Vista or Win7 see these flags as well?
 
The "flags" are marked in the drive's controller; it has nothing to do with Windows or any OS you're using. The drive itself is responsible for maintaining the bad sectors and remapping them to good ones.
 
Thing is, though, that if a drive really is chucking up genuine 'bad sector' errors then the ONLY truly sensible thing to do is chuck the thing in the bin and replace it!
 
The "flags" are marked in the drive's controller; it has nothing to do with Windows or any OS you're using. The drive itself is responsible for maintaining the bad sectors and remapping them to good ones.

I see, pretty much what I thought.

Thing is, though, that if a drive really is chucking up genuine 'bad sector' errors then the ONLY truly sensible thing to do is chuck the thing in the bin and replace it!

Naturally, just had to be sure though.
 
<I think the fact that this thread is still going is a waste of time, but that's just me...>
 
If you have run a scan disk and bad sectors were marked, Full-Format clears those I would think. Quick format can clear the disk to be reinstalled while maintaining marked bad sectors?
 
A full format - a proper real full format - has always been a "zero fill" as it basically erases the content of a given sector leaving it empty, or, in binary terms, with a big fat 0 sitting there, if you wanna get technical. There's nothing new to that aspect of full formats.

As for the question of marking bad sectors, a full format will not restore them to a functional state because the drive never attempts to use those sectors ever again once they are marked as bad.

Drives always come with "extra" sectors outside of the normal formatted storage capacity that are able to be mapped into the file system if and when bad sectors are found and marked as such. If you have a 40GB drive, and a sector 20GB into it is marked as bad, a mapped good sector will then be used from the limited number of "extra" ones outside the normal formatted capacity (meaning it's past the 40GB formatted point) to be used in place of the bad one.

There is a limit to the number of "extra" sectors on a given drive. Usually the S.M.A.R.T. data will list that as one of the variables, the Bad Sector Remap count iirc... if you "swap out" a number of bad sectors that is greater than the available "extra" ones on the drive, it'll trigger a S.M.A.R.T. alert/error because you've overextended the drive's remapping capabilities.

But full formats have always been considered to be a "zero fill," it's just that in the past few years the name has changed from full format to "zero fill."

Reminds me of a George Carlin skit once about "Shell Shock," the psychological trauma noted in military personnel from World War I and II. In the next major conflict/war (the Korean War) the same condition became "Combat Stress Reaction" - so then it became a three word title for the same condition.

Then Vietnam rolled around and the same exact condition became "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder" - same condition but now it's got a name four words long... ridiculous.

Unnecessarily complicated terms that keep getting updated for no good reason. For all intents and purposes, a full format on a hard drive partition (since you can split 'em up, yanno) = "zero fill" as the end result is the same: empty sectors marked with zeroes, and a file allocation table or master file table that simply shows all sectors have no content whatsoever.
 
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