I'm installing Windows XP right now on a new machine

[PizzaDude]

NTFS File System (Quick)

or

NTFS File System

?

 

[Amateur]

NTFS Quick is fine. Either or will give you the same result, just one is quick and the other is not.

 

[Special1Sauce]

I've always used NTFS quick no probs with any installs i've done of Xp Pro

 

[Lonyo]

I had a HDD with messed up partition, and NTFS (Win 2k) and Partition Magic could not fix it.
Win XP NTFS quick fixed it so the HDD was good again.

 

[John]

IIRC the regular format will scan and mark bad sectors on the partition, and the quick just zaps the files only. Use quick if you know that nothing is wrong with the drive.

 

[Whatsisname]

Use NTFS quick unless you have a massive stash of nasty porn or something you need to somewhat hide from the govt lol.

 

[whattaguy]

Originally posted by: John
IIRC the regular format will scan and mark bad sectors on the partition, and the quick just zaps the files only. Use quick if you know that nothing is wrong with the drive.

Excuse me for jumping on this thread...so using quick for the normal, everyday reformat is fine? So it wipes the drive totally clean minus the error check? Man, I've been doing the "regular" one for the past 2 years! DOH!

 

[obeseotron]

As I understand it both types of formats simply designate your old files as free space, they don't actually wipe anything thing clean, a low level format would be necessary to actually write all zeros to the drive.

 

[WobbleWobble]

Normal and Quick formatting both only rewrites the file system so the data is still there, your computer just doesn't know how to read it anymore. What normal does that quick doesn't do is check for bad sectors.