why are the manufacturer utilities so much faster at formatting?

[hupjack]

I just re-imaged my desktop. After a year of running XP and uninstalls
and re-installs it had developed a few too many quirks.

I decided to shift around my partitions, and I reconfigured my drive
using the seagate disc wizard for my drive.
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html

I couldn't help but notice, that it set up the drive with an NTFS
partition almost instantaneously, whereas if you format a partition
from within windows or when booted from the XP CD, it takes a fair
ammount of time depending on the size of the disc.

Why is the seagate disc wizard able to do it so quickly? Is it doing
the equivalent of a "quick format"? One of the options on the XP
Boot.... Or does it just "know" the drive it's dealing with more
intimately? Exploiting some proprietary tricks of the trade?

also, I noticed there was an extra box to check in the seagate disc
wizard (in addition to the radio button telling it you are going to
install XP) to tell it you were going to install SP1 or later. What on
earth does it do differntly when setting up the partition for SP1 or
SP2? I wouldn't have guessed that those XP service packs involve
changes all the way down to the way they work with the NTFS file
structure. I installed XP from a disc I made with SP2 slipstreamed
into it, so I definitely checked the box, just curious for some insight
into some of what's going on in all this.

 

[Rod Speed]

(e-mail address removed) wrote

I just re-imaged my desktop. After a year of running XP and
uninstalls and re-installs it had developed a few too many quirks.

I decided to shift around my partitions, and I reconfigured
my drive using the seagate disc wizard for my drive.
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html

I couldn't help but notice, that it set up the drive with an NTFS
partition almost instantaneously, whereas if you format a partition
from within windows or when booted from the XP CD, it takes
a fair ammount of time depending on the size of the disc.

No it doesnt if you use the quick format option.

Why is the seagate disc wizard able to do it so quickly?
Is it doing the equivalent of a "quick format"?
Yep.

One of the options on the XP Boot....

Or does it just "know" the drive it's dealing with more
intimately? Exploiting some proprietary tricks of the trade?
Nope.

also, I noticed there was an extra box to check in the seagate disc
wizard (in addition to the radio button telling it you are going to install
XP) to tell it you were going to install SP1 or later. What on earth
does it do differntly when setting up the partition for SP1 or SP2?

Thats the 48 bit LBA support question.

I wouldn't have guessed that those XP service packs involve changes
all the way down to the way they work with the NTFS file structure.

It does affect the total size supported.

 

[D.Currie]

I just re-imaged my desktop. After a year of running XP and uninstalls
and re-installs it had developed a few too many quirks.

I decided to shift around my partitions, and I reconfigured my drive
using the seagate disc wizard for my drive.
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html

I couldn't help but notice, that it set up the drive with an NTFS
partition almost instantaneously, whereas if you format a partition
from within windows or when booted from the XP CD, it takes a fair
ammount of time depending on the size of the disc.

Why is the seagate disc wizard able to do it so quickly? Is it doing
the equivalent of a "quick format"? One of the options on the XP
Boot.... Or does it just "know" the drive it's dealing with more
intimately? Exploiting some proprietary tricks of the trade?

also, I noticed there was an extra box to check in the seagate disc
wizard (in addition to the radio button telling it you are going to
install XP) to tell it you were going to install SP1 or later. What on
earth does it do differntly when setting up the partition for SP1 or
SP2? I wouldn't have guessed that those XP service packs involve
changes all the way down to the way they work with the NTFS file
structure. I installed XP from a disc I made with SP2 slipstreamed
into it, so I definitely checked the box, just curious for some insight
into some of what's going on in all this.

It's most likely a quick format; they are assuming there's no old data on a
new drive, and assuming it doesn't need to be checked for errors or
whatever.

As for the SP question, it might have to do with whether the OS will be able
to recognize a drive larger than 137GB.

 

[Ron Martell]

I just re-imaged my desktop. After a year of running XP and uninstalls
and re-installs it had developed a few too many quirks.

I decided to shift around my partitions, and I reconfigured my drive
using the seagate disc wizard for my drive.
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html

I couldn't help but notice, that it set up the drive with an NTFS
partition almost instantaneously, whereas if you format a partition
from within windows or when booted from the XP CD, it takes a fair
ammount of time depending on the size of the disc.

Why is the seagate disc wizard able to do it so quickly? Is it doing
the equivalent of a "quick format"? One of the options on the XP
Boot.... Or does it just "know" the drive it's dealing with more
intimately? Exploiting some proprietary tricks of the trade?

also, I noticed there was an extra box to check in the seagate disc
wizard (in addition to the radio button telling it you are going to
install XP) to tell it you were going to install SP1 or later. What on
earth does it do differntly when setting up the partition for SP1 or
SP2? I wouldn't have guessed that those XP service packs involve
changes all the way down to the way they work with the NTFS file
structure. I installed XP from a disc I made with SP2 slipstreamed
into it, so I definitely checked the box, just curious for some insight
into some of what's going on in all this.

It is just doing a "quick format" - zeroing out the disk usage tables
and setting all the disk space as unused.

A full format also does a test read and verify operation on every data
sector of the drive so as to ensure that it is usable.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

It is just doing a "quick format" -
Nope.

zeroing out the disk usage tables and setting all the disk space as unused.

Which structures obviously are not yet there on an empty disk.

A full format also does a test read and verify operation on
every data sector of the drive so as to ensure that it is usable.

And that is what the Mfgr utilities skip on.

 

[Ron Martell]

Which structures obviously are not yet there on an empty disk.

They are when you run the format. For example on a FAT32 drive the
root directory and file allocation table would be created, with
everything empty/marked unused. Similarly for an NTFS drive.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[hupjack]

hey.... thanks everybody for responding.. looks like I guessed
right.. (for the most part) ;-)

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

They are when you run the format.

So obviously there is no need to
"zeroing out the disk usage tables and setting all the disk space as unused".

For example on a FAT32 drive the root directory and file allocation
table would be created, with everything empty/marked unused.

Right, so no "zeroing out the disk usage tables and setting all the disk space as unused".

 

[Ron Martell]

Right, so no "zeroing out the disk usage tables and setting all the disk space as unused".

The original question was not asked in the specific context of a newly
created partition, just as a general question on the difference
between a full format and a quick format.

Previously existing partitions can also be formatted and in that case
the existing root directory and file allocation table (on FAT12,
FAT16, and FAT32 drives) would be zeroed out.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm