What is disk formatting and how to do it correctly. Full and quick formatting: differences in application

Divided into two types - fast And complete. In this post, I will talk about how quick formatting differs from full formatting and when you should use these types of formatting.

So, what is the difference between quick and full formatting?

With a quick format, only the file system table is recreated (overwritten), and the data area is not affected.

With full formatting, it is first checked for availability. If such sectors are detected, the scan program tries to fix them, and if unsuccessful, marks them as faulty (bad sectors). Accordingly, such sectors are excluded from the file system tables, which are formed after a full surface check. This means that no further data is written to bad sectors.

To put it simply, we can say that during the quick formatting process, a disk partition is marked as blank. After such formatting, you will not find any files that were previously stored there on the formatted disk, which creates the impression that the files were deleted, although this was not the case. In fact, all the files remain in place, but the operating system will consider this partition empty and will write new information over the previously recorded one. This means that, if desired, information from an incorrectly formatted partition can be restored, but there are many factors that influence the success of recovery, and I will talk about this some other time.

Unlike quick formatting, full formatting also includes a preliminary check of the integrity of the hard drive, that is, bad sectors are looked for. Since this operation checks each sector of the disk separately, full formatting takes an order of magnitude longer than quick formatting. The time for complete formatting depends primarily on the size of the partition being formatted.

When should you use quick formatting and when should you use full formatting?

It’s difficult to give any clear recommendations here, but I usually do this: if I need to delete all data from a hard drive partition or from a removable storage medium, for example, a flash drive, then I use quick formatting, since it is completed in a matter of seconds. If I suspect that bad sectors have appeared on the disk, or that the file system has been damaged (as a result of a virus or due to incorrect removal of the storage medium from the computer), then I use full formatting.

And in conclusion, I want to say that the formatting process does not harm your hard drive or removable storage media in any way and you can format it without fear of damaging them.

Don't miss the opportunity to do a good deed:

Hello dear readers, today I will show formatting methods and I'll tell you What is the difference between full formatting and quick formatting? I will also show you a good program for low-level formatting of a hard drive and flash drives. I think everyone should know this in order to gain time in one moment, and in another to keep the hard drive or your flash drive healthy.

People often wonder what full and quick formatting is. . And usually when a disk or flash drive is simply formatted on a computer. But sometimes it’s not necessary full formatting which can go on for hours. Remember how much time you wasted waiting for your disk or flash drive to be formatted for a long time. But full formatting is also a necessary thing.

Full formatting of a hard drive or flash drive

Usually this formatting is done in the standard when you format the disk or flash drive, then the device is formatted by full formatting. It is needed for careful formatting so that it is impossible to restore the information, although now we have learned with full formatting, but still not all the information will be restored and this is more difficult.

Second useful point This formatting means that your disk or flash drive is checked for bad sectors and restored if any are found.

I'll give you a little advice. It is better to correct sectors with special programs. In the following articles I will give instructions on how best to recover bad sectors on disks. Therefore, subscribe to updates and stay up to date with the news.

That's why of the advantages of full formatting, in that the disk or flash drive is completely erased, without possible recovery. And if there are bad sectors, it will be restored, but again, sometimes this is not a plus. Since it is better to do this with a special program.

A disadvantages in time and that the sectors may not recover well. And even if they are restored, you will not see how much was damaged and how much was restored.

Quick formatting of a hard drive or flash drive

This is very, files and folders on the media are deleted. But there is little information left for data recovery, so after formatting this way, you may notice that there is less free space on the disk than it should be.

Great advantage quick formatting, this time, sometimes it plays a very role.

A minuses The problem is that the space is not completely freed up and if the disk or flash drive starts to work incorrectly, then it is better to format it with standard formatting in order to restore all the bad sectors.

How to format?

And it’s very easy to format, you can do it yourself using a program.

We go into my computer, right-click on the disk or flash drive that you want to format and click format.

A window appears in which you can select full formatting or quick formatting.

For full formatting you need to make sure that the checkbox is ticked quick format removed, and for quick formatting it’s the other way around. Selected, click format, done.

Formatting using the program will give maximum effect of full formatting. To start

The archive will contain the program itself and the Russification for it. Install and launch.

It will open for you program for formatting hard drives and flash drives.

Select the device you will format. I will format the USB flash drive.

Click Continue and a window with information about the device will appear. We don't need it, go straight to the tab low level formatting.

We check at the top that this is exactly the device that we want to format. And select format the device (you can also select, if necessary, by checking the box perform a quick clean).

After completion, the program will notify you that formatting complete.

Now open my computer and check the flash drive. If it asks for formatting, then click formatting as described above and select That’s all, your flash drive will be completely formatted and disinfected.

Now you know what it is complete and quick formatting and know how to use a program that will keep your disks always healthy.

Formatting a hard drive means not only deleting information from it, but also marking it into sectors and recording data access structures. The formatting process is not rich in varieties; there are only two types: low-level and high-level. The first is beyond the control of the operating system environment and the average user due to the installed protection; such measures were taken because this operation is a partition of the disk into sectors and tracks - the loss of such important content makes it impossible to further use the disk.
Thus, the user has the opportunity to operate only with high-level formatting, which implies the removal of content accumulated during work and a number of other structures. Therefore, when talking about formatting, we usually mean one of the high-level formatting algorithms, fast or complete. What is the difference between them?
Function full formatting, as the name suggests, implies a deep disk cleanup. First of all, with full formatting, the “Main File Table” is reset; If we go down to the common language, this table (the generally accepted designation is “MFT”, i.e. “Master File Table”) is a database file that stores all the information about the contents of the disk: images, program structures, video and audio files of the user, operating system folder, etc., in a word, all the information accumulated over time. After resetting the MFT database, the information on the disk becomes inaccessible.
With full formatting, all user files are also deleted, and at the binary code level, all sectors in which recorded information was stored are filled with zero values, i.e. information is completely erased; its restoration, which is possible after a quick format, becomes unthinkable with a complete format.
A special function of full formatting is to check the disk for bad sectors. If any are detected, information about the location of the “bad” sector is saved to a non-erasable partition of the hard drive, and subsequently no data is written to the damaged fragment.
Due to its complexity, complete formatting takes a long period of time. On modern computers, complete formatting of 100 GB of information requires, on average, 20-25 minutes.
Quick formatting has not such a complex algorithm as the full one, since it is limited only to deleting the “MFT” table without erasing existing files (which is why their subsequent recovery becomes possible). In this case, the disk is not checked for damaged segments.

TheDifference.ru determined that the difference between quick and full formatting is as follows:

After a quick format, it is possible to partially restore previously existing files, but not with complete formatting.
Quick formatting does not erase user files, which happens with full formatting.
With quick formatting, the hard drive is not checked for damage, but with full formatting, a check is performed.
Quick formatting takes less time than full formatting.

Everyone, one way or another, has at least once encountered the need to format a flash drive. It’s a standard procedure, but not everyone pays due attention to it, especially the formatting itself. This is exactly what I would like to talk about in more detail in this material. So let's discuss what format to format everything in.

Why formatting is needed

Before we get to the point, it’s worth understanding a little about why formatting is needed in the first place. Many people mistakenly believe that by formatting a flash drive, they simply delete all unnecessary information from it, but this is not so. The drive has a certain digital structure, similar to the same hard drives. The structure consists of clusters that have a certain volume for storing information.

Over time, clusters can become overwritten, overwritten, or even become broken. As a result, all this leads to not entirely correct operation of the drive itself, and the only thing that can help in this situation is formatting.

During this process, the entire structure (clusters) is updated anew, which brings it, so to speak, to its normal, previous form. It is also possible to completely overwrite clusters by changing the format. Let's figure out which format is best to format a flash drive.

Ext4

The first format is Ext4. It is extremely rare to find flash drives with such a file system, and all for one simple reason - such drives can only work in the Linux operating system. If you insert such a flash drive into a PC running Windows, nothing will happen, because the system is not designed to work with this format.

FAT32

When choosing which format to format the flash drive for, you can choose the standard one, which is offered by default by the operating system - FAT32. It has been around for quite a long time and remains one of the most popular on this moment. Almost all flash drives and drives that leave the factory (up to 8 GB in capacity) are formatted in the FAT32 file system. Previously, there were 2 more formats - FAT and FAT16, but they were quite outdated, so they were abandoned.

FAT32 is easily recognized by any operating system, which makes this format universal. Another advantage is the high data transfer speed when copying. However, there were some downsides. The most important drawback of the format is the limitation on the maximum size of one file: it should not exceed 4 GB. Also, the disadvantages include not very high reliability. As a rule, flash drives running FAT32 fail quite quickly, as a result of which the user may lose some important information at the most inopportune moment.

NTFS

Very often the question: “In what format should I format the flash drive?” you can hear a very common answer: “Well, of course, in NTFS!” And this is not surprising, because NTFS is devoid of almost all the disadvantages that the FAT file system has. For example, there are no file size restrictions, which is a big plus. In addition, drives with the NTFS file system have very high reliability and durability, which allows them not to be afraid of system failures or incorrect extractions.

The disadvantages of NTFS include not the highest data transfer speed. In fact, it is much less than that of FAT32, but, as they say, As for compatibility, drives with the NTFS file system work with almost all operating systems, except perhaps the very old Windows ME, 98 and 95.

exFAT

exFAT is a format that replaced FAT32. Its main difference from its predecessor is that it has no restrictions regarding file sizes. In other words, it is practically the same NTFS, but with some differences. Firstly, the cluster volume has been increased to 32 KB, secondly, the data transfer speed is much higher, and thirdly, exFAT uses space more economically.

The main disadvantage of this format is that it is not yet very widespread and has poor compatibility with other operating systems. Drives with such a file system work correctly only on Windows 7 and higher operating systems. Performance on devices other than computers is also low.

If you choose which format to format the flash drive in from the three presented above, then perhaps you should opt for NTFS if your drive has a capacity of more than 8 GB. If less, then the choice is obvious - FAT32. For those who like experimenting, we can recommend exFAT, but you need to be extremely careful with it.

What format should I format a flash drive for Android?

When formatting microSD cards for Android smartphones, it is recommended to use the FAT32 file system, which is the default. Why not NTFS? Because the Android OS is based on Linux, which is not friendly with this system from birth. On the Internet, of course, there is a lot of information about how, with the help of various manipulations and programs, you can still make NTFS work on Android, but inexperienced users should refrain from such experiments.

So, when choosing which format to format a flash drive for Android in, it’s best to stick with the usual FAT32.