Difference between quick format and full format in newly partitioned logical drive?

[Paul Randall]

Hi,
I'm having problems with a quick formatted logical drive created with
WXP-SP1's disk management, when I try to do an unattended install of WXP-SP2
into that logical drive using WINNT. If I use third party partioning
software, quick format says it won't work and requires me do a full format.
And the unattended install works properly. ChkDsk of the quickformatted
partitions shows no problems and unattended install still fails - can't find
a bootable disk on first reboot. So I'm wondering, on a brand new
partition, whether full format sets some bits that quick format doesn't?
I'm guessing the full format perhaps notes the full extent of the partition
in the cluster table and the quick format doesn't? Any ideas?

-Paul Randall

 

[Thorsten Matzner]

I'm having problems with a quick formatted logical drive created with
WXP-SP1's disk management, when I try to do an unattended install of WXP-SP2
into that logical drive using WINNT. If I use third party partioning
software, quick format says it won't work and requires me do a full format.
And the unattended install works properly. ChkDsk of the quickformatted
partitions shows no problems and unattended install still fails - can't find
a bootable disk on first reboot. So I'm wondering, on a brand new
partition, whether full format sets some bits that quick format doesn't?

QF does not actually format a disk, so it cannot be use on new
partitions. You have to do at least one full format.
"Differences between a Quick format and a regular format during a
"clean" installation of Windows XP"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=302686)

 

[Paul Randall]

QF does not actually format a disk, so it cannot be use on new
partitions. You have to do at least one full format.
"Differences between a Quick format and a regular format during a
"clean" installation of Windows XP"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=302686)

Problem solved! A disk dump shows that on a hard drive, QF sets/clears all
the same bits that full format does.

The quick format works just fine on a brand new partition on a brand new
hard drive, it turns out. I ran ChkDsk on all the quick-formatted
partitions and it found no problems. My problem turned out to be the fact
that WXP's disk management does NOT mark any primary partitions as active
when it creates them (I think FDisk does). Once created you can right click
on a partition and mark it active if you want to. If no primary partition
is marked as active, your computer can't boot from that hard drive and your
BIOS may not give you a helpful message when you try to boot from it.

I was attempting to set up a hard drive to learn how to do unattended
installations of WXP. Running WXP from the hard drive on my primary IDE
channel, I did the quick format (FAT32) of a number of primary and logical
partitions on the new hard drive on my secondary IDE channel. I then copied
the i386 folder from my WXP install CD to the new hard drive. I then shut
down, disconnected the hard drive on the primary IDE channel. Then I booted
with a DOS floppy and ran WINNT to do the unattended install on the hard
drive on my secondary IDE channel. It started running normally, but after
copying files, the system attempted to reboot. Since Disk Management had
not marked any partitions as active, the reboot failed. There was no clue
that no partion was marked active. I thought it might be a "quick"
formatting problem.

Now that I mark a primary partion as active, this process works perfectly to
install WXP to any drive letter in a primary or extended partition on the
hard drive.

Having an easily recreated fresh WXP installation in a logical drive should
make it easier to diagnose problems using a 'clean' system.