The process of making a hard disk usable by an operating system is called formatting. It involves erasing all the data in a hard disk and making it suitable to install an operating system. Formatting includes creating a file system in the hard drive. There are several programs that could be used for disk formatting such as FORMAT.COM. Quick formatting and (regular) formatting are two options available for doing a disk formatting.
What is Quick Format?
Quick formatting is an option available for formatting a disk when it is prepared for installing an operating system. Quick formatting removes the data in the volume that is formatted. If FAT file system is used, quick formatting basically creates a blank FAT and a directory table. But quick formatting does not perform a disk scan to locate bad sectors. Having bad sectors in a hard disk would produce data read errors. They would be reported as corrupted files, if data is stored in bad sectors. Due to this reason, quick formatting is only a better option if the volume is formatted before and you are sure that the disk does not contain any bad sectors. Since the volume is not scanned, as the name suggests, quick formatting would take lesser time.
What is Format?
(Regular) formatting is another option available for formatting a disk when it is prepared for installing an operating system. (Regular) formatting will remove the files in the volume that is formatted and also scan it for bad sectors. Due to this, (regular) formatting would take a longer time. (Regular) formatting will truly wipe the content in the volume being formatted and build the whole file structure from the scratch in addition to scanning to detect bad sectors. (Regular) formatting would mark the bad sectors such that the operating system would not access them in the future. Due to this reason a new hard disk that has not been formatted before needs a (regular) formatting since it needs a new file structure. But (regular) formatting cannot repair or remove bad sectors, and they could not be used for data storage. Bad sectors could only be fixed by performing a low level formatting.
What is the difference between Quick Format and Format?
Even though, formatting and quick formatting are two options available for formatting a hard disk when it is prepared for installing an operating system they have some differences. Quick formatting removes the data in the volume that is formatted, whereas (regular) formatting removes the data in the volume and scans it to locate bad sectors. Due to this scanning, (regular) formatting would take a longer time when compared to quick formatting. (Regular) Formatting would build whole file structure from the scratch in the volume being formatted. Due to this reason, new hard disks need a (regular) formatting since the file structure needs to be built. If you are sure that the volume is formatted before and it does not contain any bad sectors, performing a quick scan would be a better option.