Does new hard drive needs full format?

[ckr97]

Is there any reason (or good practice) to perform full format of a new hard drive?

Last time I formatted a 2TB external drive, which took almost 20 hours to complete!!! Hope this is normal time for 2TB capacity?

 

[hang-the-9]

A Quick one should be fine.

 

[Hawkeye22]

When hard drives used to have smaller capacities, I'd always do a full format on a new drive. With larger capacity drives I do a quick format unless it's going to be a high value drive, such as used in a production server... and yes, it can take 4 hours or longer depending on the size of the drive.

 

[ram1009]

I've formatted several 2TB HDDs in about 3 hours. Not much longer than it took to get an answer to this question. I would NEVER even consider using a new HDD without formatting it.

 

[Hawkeye22]

I've formatted several 2TB HDDs in about 3 hours. Not much longer than it took to get an answer to this question. I would NEVER even consider using a new HDD without formatting it.

You can't use a drive without formatting it. The OP's question was a full format vs. a quick format.

 

[nordlead]

From Microsoft Support - http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=302686

When you choose to run a regular format on a volume, files are removed from the volume that you are formatting and the hard disk is scanned for bad sectors. The scan for bad sectors is responsible for the majority of the time that it takes to format a volume.

If you choose the Quick format option, format removes files from the partition, but does not scan the disk for bad sectors. Only use this option if your hard disk has been previously formatted and you are sure that your hard disk is not damaged.

If you installed Windows XP on a partition that was formatted by using the Quick format option, you can also check your disk by using the chkdsk /r command after the installation of Windows XP is completed.

 

[pjmelect]

You should always do a full format on a new (unknown) drive. You should do a quick format on a drive you know is good. Saying that the temptation to just do a quick format and save a few hours can be overwhelming. The number of times I have been caught out by a faulty hard drive because I can't be bothered to wait for a full format which has wasted a lot of my time as I try to figure out what has gone wrong.