Quick Format vs Full Format - Which one is Most Secure!

Very often windows PC users need format their PC hard drive or other storage device. There are two main options in Windows for erasing data: Quick Format and Full Format. Most of you may hear or use the Quick format option. And Quick format is the mostly used option for erasing data from PC hard drive and External devices. But the question is what are the differences between Quick format and Full format. I have tried to find the answer of this question from the security point of view. Let's see what I found...

Quick Format:

A Quick Format is just that, quick. In order to make the formatting process quick, This method does not check the bad sectors of the drive which it format. Anyone looking at the hard drive or storage device would not see any data and assume the drive is erased. Unfortunately, the files are actually still there and the volume could be re-built, to gain access to the files again. Now the question is....

• Is Quick Format Secure?

As I said that Quick Format does not delete all data on the disk. Instead, a Quick Format writes a new file table onto the drive. The new file table doesn't have any information about the data that was on the disk before the format. So, for most purposes, the disk is now “blank.” This is good if you are going to be reusing the disk yourself or if you are re-installing an operating system. But if you are selling, donating or trashing your hard drive, a Quick Format isn't a good idea.

How to Perform a Quick Format:

You can do it from Windows Explorer by clicking Start >> Computer and then right-clicking the drive and choosing Format.

• Then in the Format disk  window, check Quick Format and click Start.

Full Format:

A Full Format runs an additional step that checks the hard drive for any bad sectors. That is why the Full Format method take much longer time then Quick Format. But unfortunately, just like the quick format the files still exist and the volume could be re-built to gain access to any of the files on the drive again. Again the same question arise...

• Is a Full Format Secure Enough?

While writing this article, I tried my darnedest to recover data off of my full formatted drive. I tried performing deep scans using both R-Studio and Recuva and found no recoverable files. Given that, I would say that doing a full format in Windows Vista or later is secure enough for most personal users. If you have government secrets or sensitive customer data on your hard drive, you’ll want to do a more thorough job of obfuscating your data. Allegedly, there are ways to recover parts of data that has been overwritten, but it requires a true data recovery pro and some expensive equipment. So, I can say Full format is much secure than Quick format.

How to Perform a Full Format:

To perform a full format, right-click the drive in Windows Explorer and click Format… as you did before, but this time, unmark the Quick Format check box. And click Start.

Why to Choose Quick or Full Format:

If you are planning to re-use the drive and don't believe anything is wrong with the drive, a quick format is adequate since you are still the owner. If you believe the drive may have problems or are encountering problems with the computer, a full format is a good option to make sure no issues exist with the drive.

If you want to sell or donate the drive and there is sensitive information on the drive, I highly recommend securely erase all information on the hard drive.

Stay with www.iTTimesbd.com for more IT related post