MiniTool Partition Wizard is a powerful partition manager that spares no effort to resolve various problems related to a storage device like formatting hard drive. For example, you can use it to resize partition, convert FAT to NTFS with ease, wipe hard drive, and migrate OS to SSD, etc. MiniTool Partition Wizard is a partition magic for Windows that can be used to do a lot of things. For example, when you see 'low disk space warning', its Extend Partition feature is very helpful. When you need to upgrade hard drive to SSD, its Copy Disk feature is extremely useful. When your hard disk became RAW, its Partition.

Quick Navigation :

About Format Volume

Format Volume feature helps format volumes with excessively redundant data or which are infected with rampant computer viruses. It can reset parameters including partition table, file system and cluster size for chosen volume. The following is the MiniTool Partition Wizard tutorial to format volume.

Note: MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition does not support this function. To use this function, users need to buy a professional edition or more advanced edition. View Edition Comparison to know more.

How to Format Volume

Step 1. After running MiniTool Partition Wizard, users will get the following main interface. Then choose the volume which needs to be formatted and click Format Volume feature from the left action panel or the right-click menu.

Step 2. Now set Volume Label, File System, and Cluster Size for the target volume, and then click OK to go back to the main interface.

Step 3. Please click Apply button to execute the change.

If MiniTool Partition Wizard asks for a restart, please do as prompted.

Summary :

What is quick format and what is full format? Does either quick/full format erase all data? Many computer users may not have clear concept about these. This article will explain the differences between quick format and full format and provide advice on how to choose between them.

Quick Navigation :

Quick Format VS Full Format

Brief Introduction to Formatting

As we mentioned in What Is Disk Formatting, the whole disk formatting process consists of three parts: low-level formatting, partitioning, and high-level formatting. The formatting operated by computer users is high-level formatting. And this formatting is operated on partitions.

However, the high-level formatting is specifically divided into two modes in the actual operations: quick format and full format (it is also called general format).

The differences between quick format vs. format often make computer users confused. A good knowledge about them will help computer users make best use of disk.

How to Perform Quick/Full Format in Windows

First, let's take formatting in Windows Explorer and Disk Management as examples. When computer users format a partition, quick format is checked by default. If they uncheck quick format, full format mode is selected automatically.

Windows Explorer

Open File Explorer and right click a local disk under This PC. Then click Format.

Disk Management

Minitool Partition Wizard 10 Download

Press 'Windows + R' keys and then type 'diskmgmt.msc' to open Disk Management. Then, right click a partition and select Format.

In addition, computer users can also use diskpart command to perform quick/full format. Press 'Windows + R' keys and type 'cmd' to open the cmd window. Then, type 'diskpart' to open diskpart window. Type 'list disk', 'select disk *', 'list partition', 'select partition *' to locate the partition to be formatted.

Type 'format fs=ntfs quick' to carry out quick format. Type 'format fs=ntfs' to perform full format.

Differences between Quick Format and Full Format

What is the difference between quick format and full format? Does quick/full format erase all data? Many people are concerned about these questions. To figure out these problems, computer users must know what happens when they format partition with quick format vs. full format.

Quick format will 'delete' files from the partition and rebuild the file system, volume label, and cluster size. It is faster than full format. However, it's not the real sense of formatting.

Pay attention that I used the word 'delete', not 'erase'. That means that quick format doesn't really erase all the data.

It just marks the partition as 'formatted' and destroys the journal that keeps tracks of the files and their locations on hard drive. So, the data is still on the hard drive and it can be easily recovered by a data recovery software before it is overwritten. Call of duty free download mac unblocked.

Full format will clear files completely from the partition, rebuild the file system, volume label, and cluster size, and scan partition for logical bad sectors (that's why full format is slower than quick format). It is the real sense of formatting and that's why some people are afraid of it.

In Windows with the versions Windows XP and earlier, full format just had the additional bad sector scanning function compared to quick format. That means that data can be easily recovered in these Windows operating system even if full format is performed.

But full format is changed in Windows Vista and later Windows versions, it will erase original data, write zeros to the whole partition, and finally erase zeroes again to avoid the possibility of data recovery. So, full format does erase all data.

Generally speaking, data that is fully formatted (in Windows Vista and later Windows versions) will not be able to be recovered by data recovery software. However, some people still think that data can be recovered with more advanced technology through the residual magnetism on disk.

Then, how to make data unrecoverable to guarantee users' data recovery? Many people may wonder about that.

How to Recover Data from quick Formatted Disk

If a computer user has fully formatted a disk, it's difficult for him to recover data with civilian data recovery software. But he can recover data easily if the disk is performed with just quick format.

MiniTool Partition Wizard can also help to recover data. Here is the tutorial.

Step 1: Buy MiniTool Partition Wizard and launch it to get its main interface. And then click Data Recovery on the toolbar.

Step 2: Double click the formatted partition G or select it and click Scan to start scanning.

Tip: I know the lost file is a picture, so I can click Settings before scanning to make the software only scan for pictures.

Only check the file type of files that I want to retrieve.

Step 3: The scanning result is shown as the following picture. Then, I need to find the picture.

Attention:

Use Path, Type, and Show Lost Files features to find the picture. But it's a huge work if there are lots of files.
Use Find feature to type the filename 'my photo' to find it.
Use Filter feature to limit the filename/extension, file size, creation/modification data and so on to find out the picture.
Use Preview feature to check whether this file is what you need before saving the file.

Step 4: Select the file and click Save.

Retrieve File When Computer Can't Boot

Sometimes, computer users may accidentally format a partition and cause the computer to not boot anymore. Or, computer users may mistakenly install Windows (which sometimes will format the target disk) and also cause the computer to stop booting.

If these situations happen, how to recover data from quick formatted disk when computer can't boot? Fortunately, MiniTool Partition Wizard can also solve this problem.

Here is the tutorial.

Tip: The top 3 steps are operated on a normal running computer.

Step 1: Buy MiniTool Partition Wizard and launch. And then click Bootable Media on the toolbar.

Step 2: Click WinPE-based media with MiniTool plug-in, and choose the media desti

Minitool Partition Wizard Quick Format