Windows provides two ways of formatting namely "Quick Format" and "Format". Quick format take just a few seconds whereas format takes a very long time to finish.
Here we will discuss the difference between these two options. So its quite simple. Windows maintains a MFT or Master File table, which contains details of what all files exist on that partition/drive and where it is located. So quick format simply erases this file and makes the OS think the drive is empty.
The process is same when we delete something from our PC using delete button. In windows when we delete something, let us suppose a word document then OS simply erases its entry from MFT file and thinks the space as free, however we can still retrieve that file using many "undelete" or "file recovery " softwares available. So if you understood this is the concept lies behind these file undelete tools.
Now let us come to the second option of formatting i.e. "format" which takes an ample of time. "format" will erase all data from the drive by writing 0s to the disk. You might have read on microsoft site that it detects bad sectors on hard disk. So it is your common sense, if OS writes 0 back to each sector on hard disk i.e. it performs write operation on each sector of disk and in case it is unable to do so, it shows an error and let us know the status of our corrupted disk.
Now the main question arises, should i do "format" or "quick format". So the answer is simple. "You should go for format". Why? So it is again your common sense, one is it writes zero to all sectors and checks our disk for write errors, and the other reason is that if it writes zero to all sectors then the chances of data corruption reduces.
However it is up to you and you can go for anything. There is only a slight difference.
