Reformatting Hard Drive

Andy Sandoval · Post by **Andy Sandoval** » 27 Oct 2009 1:45 pm

I like to reformat my hard drive periodically and was wondering, what's the difference in a regular reformat which takes much longer and the "quick reformat"? Is there an advantage to the regular reformat?

Mitch Drumm · Post by **Mitch Drumm** » 27 Oct 2009 1:59 pm

A regular format scans for bad sectors, which takes extra time.

A quick format does not scan the disk for bad sectors.

I periodically run chkdsk /r to see if I have bad sectors and always make a point to do that before installing an OS. Then I just do a quick format.