Was searching around to give an update to a similar question I posed some time ago in a forum and have some answers which may be of help to you.
Firstly, the difference between quick format and normal format in XP is as stated.....one only formats the drive (quick option) and the normal format writes to and reads off the hard drive. If you suspect a problem with your drives or you are in no particular hurry to install XP again, I suggest using the normal format. This will give you peace of mind over the integrity of your hard drives. Using this method showed up a problem with one of my IBM Deathstar Hard drives when I did a recent format. Couldn't understand why it would stick at 87% of format but would pass O.K. in quick format. Reason for this was that one of the drives in my array was faulty, as confirmed by using IBM's own diagnostic utility.
Another pointer to hard drive /motherboard problems is to run chkdisk on your hard drives (tick both boxes in the error checking tool when you right click on hard drive and select tools from properties) This performs a function similar to scandisk in Win9x. It is slightly more advanced in that it will check data on the disk and correct errors in files as well as perform a full check on the hard drive. I recommend that you perform this check immediately after you have installed windows as it can save you an awful lot of grief later on. If you get error messages saying that windows has found faulty clusters and is repairing files then you have problems. It means either hard drive or motherboard IDE controller problems. I know this from experience!
Could never figure out why my system would crsh out to BSOD whenever I did anything serious with Photoshop. The penny dropped when running chkdsk kept throwing up faulty clusters. I got a new replacement hard drive from IBM/Hitachi (3 week wait!) and still had the same problems. Took the plunge and trawled through suppliers on the net to find the cheapest Socket A board for support for SDram (an old system, you understand!). Installed my processor and other bits and pieces and voila! No more problems in Photoshop and no faulty clusters thrown up under test. Problem solved.
I wish people wouldn't knock Bill Gates products. XP is a fine operating system and most everything you want to use as a serious PC enthusiast is there...........you just have to know where to find it.