HDD formatting

[Potatoman]

Hi all, im about to do a clean install of XP. During setup, i asked whether to to a full format or a quick format. What is the difference? Does the quick format leave anything behind?

[Phantaxus]

quick format just replaces the partition table. this is kind of like the index for your hard disk your files are still there but the computer no longer knows where to find them. A full format will wipe the entire disk, but data could still be recovered using forensics analysis tools. So if you have been naughty best pulverise that hard disk with a large lump hammer and start again with a new one.

[j2buttonsw]

As said, I think both formats "leave something behind". I always thought a low-level format will truely wipe your HDD, but apparently you can still recover data from one that hads been LLF'd. How does that work? If all the 0s become 1s (or the other way around) what discernable data is left?

[Maxrom]

As Phantaxus points out, a quick format will leave the data intact, but because the file allocation table is wiped, your PC wont be able to access the data, and will simply overwrite your old data as you use your PC. However, specialist tools can recover data that hasn't been fully erased, or overwritten, quite easily. Doing a full format will do a better job of cleaning your disk, but it's still possible for determined professionals to attempt to recover your data. It's questionable though how successful this will be. If you are really paranoid, you can get a free utility to write random data over the entire of the drive several times, making it impossible to retrieve anything meaningful. The US Government's Department of Defence (DOD) has a standard for this type of disk cleansing, and software that meets this benchmark will do a very good job of deleting your data for good. Have a look at this website for a free tool to do it : http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/sdelete.shtml

[Maxrom]

You might also want to try this as well - looks a little more heavy duty than the last application! Use with caution! http://dban.sourceforge.net/