Best formatting options for a 2TB Hard Drive which will function as game installation drive (steam)?

[El_Burro]

Hello, I got a 2TB HDD installed on my PC and I formatted it in Windows 10 (on "this PC", right click on the drive, then click on "format...") with the settings: "File System NTFS" "allocation size 4096 bytes" and I unchecked the "fast formatting" to make sure it erases everything on it, are those settings good? or should I re-format the HDD with other settings? like 8192 bytes instead? is "slow" formatting bad for the HDD or something? whats the difference between quick and normal formatting? thanks in advance!

 

[drtweak]

That is fine and there is no real need to do a full format unless it is a drive from someone else who may have info on there or if you were getting rid of it, otherwise doing a quick format on your own drive that is for you doesn't matter.

 

[El_Burro]

That is fine and there is no real need to do a full format unless it is a drive from someone else who may have info on there or if you were getting rid of it, otherwise doing a quick format on your own drive that is for you doesn't matter.

Hello! thanks for the answer, I have one doubt, I'm currently installing windows 10 pro on my 500 GB HDD, but first I booted on the installation media (USB) and I got into command prompt on boot (shift+F10) then I entered diskpart and did a "clean all" command on the HDD I wanted "zeroed" for a true clean installation of windows 10, then in the "clean install" option of windows 10 installation media, on the HDD selection I found the HDD I "zeroed" as an unallocated volume, so I clicked on it and selected "new" so windows created a partition of 465.3 GB and another of 500 MB for System, so I selected the 465.3 GB one and started installing windows on it, Is this all rigth? which file format and file allocation size was "created" on those partitions in the "zeroed" drive? because with the "clean all" command I didn't specified anything, what happens now? thanks!!

 

[drtweak]

Ok first of all cleaning does not "Zero" the drive it. It simply removed ALL partitions on that drive. There is NO NEED WHAT SO EVER to ever do a full format or zero a drive out (which honestly even with one pass files are recoverable) but the only reason why you would need to ever do that is if you are disposing of a hard drive or giving it away. If it is a new drive or a used drive that is your own you can just delete all the partitions and then reinstall windows. There is no need to ever do a full format on anything unless you are getting rid of the drive.

with that said yes that is normal. Windows ever since vista made a 100-500MB partition first for boot and recovery. Then it will just use what ever is left for windows. If you are using a whole drive for windows there is no need to "Make" any partitions. Just make sure the drive is clean with no partitions and just select the unallocated space and click install.

Everything is always quick formatted by default and is formatted as NTFS with a 4k sector size i think.

 

[El_Burro]

Ok first of all cleaning does not "Zero" the drive it. It simply removed ALL partitions on that drive. There is NO NEED WHAT SO EVER to ever do a full format or zero a drive out (which honestly even with one pass files are recoverable) but the only reason why you would need to ever do that is if you are disposing of a hard drive or giving it away. If it is a new drive or a used drive that is your own you can just delete all the partitions and then reinstall windows. There is no need to ever do a full format on anything unless you are getting rid of the drive.

with that said yes that is normal. Windows ever since vista made a 100-500MB partition first for boot and recovery. Then it will just use what ever is left for windows. If you are using a whole drive for windows there is no need to "Make" any partitions. Just make sure the drive is clean with no partitions and just select the unallocated space and click install.

Everything is always quick formatted by default and is formatted as NTFS with a 4k sector size i think.

Thanks for the answer, one last thing, If I want to scan the disk for bad sectors to flag them and avoid being used before I install windows on it, it can be done with the command prompt on boot? whitout 3rd party apps? If I don't do this check, can I fhave any problems by installing windows in that disk? Can I fix it later with an app after installing the OS or I have to do it before installing the OS? thanks! it is a 500 HDD that has many years so I want to check it because I have no money for an SSD now.

 

[drtweak]

download Crystal Disk info in my signaure. You can keep an eye on your hard drives and bad/reallocated sectors with it. Otherwise just open up an elevated command prompt and just type in

chkdsk /f c: where c: is the drive letter of the drive. if it is the OS drive it will do it on reboot. if it is a non OS drive it will do it then and there.