Can I play video games while my drive formats?

[The White Knight]

I just switched from my 1.5TB to a new 500gig samsung 850 which I installed Win10 on and transferred all my data from the old drive. Now i'm formatting the extended drive the slow way intentionally.

Is there a real difference between quick and slow formats? (NTFS)

Is there any danger in playing games on my SSD while the extended formats?

Four drives are needed for RAID10, what's the best for 2 drives? I want 2 drives one fromm SSD disk and the other from the mechanical to stay synced and mirrored but I still want the remaining space on the extended to be available in the pool. I suppose I would just need a simple backup app? Any recommendations?

 

[clutchc]

The HDD will format itself fine while you play games off the SSD.
Quick format just wipes the drive's directory leaving it with no record of what is on it. Low level formatting actually (re)writes new tracks and sectors to the drive (unnecessary if the drive is working OK) as well as wiping the directory.

I've never used more than 2 drives with RAID0. More drives would only be better in as much as more is always better.

 

[The White Knight]

Wait but what if my computer froze/crashed while gaming wouldn't that damage the extended drive?

 

[clutchc]

Wait but what if my computer froze/crashed while gaming wouldn't that damage the extended drive?

Yes, the format would be messed up or incomplete. I guess that what you meant by "danger", huh? I thought you were just asking if you could do both at the same time, which you can. But if your PC isn't 100% stable, then you take a small chance, yes.

 

[The White Knight]

Well said, I guess I would just have to do the format again. It's an old habit to do it the slow way. Subconsciously I feel like sectors are either being repaired or preventing it from failing. Not sure if there is any truth to it or if it's just me!