[Inray]

I reinstall Win2k/Pro on the same computer every week or so (it's part of my work to test clean installations). The problem is that win2k need almost an hour to format a 100GB hard disk (NTFS). The only option to make things faster is to overwrite a previous installation, but in that case Windows overwrite most system files but leaves all the other (old programs, data etc).
Do you know any "quick format" method available on installation or just before ? It would be nice (at least for me) to reinstall Win2k in less than an hour...

Thanks

[Igor]

[Nemesis]

Inray,

You could partition the drive and install a minimal W2K installation, when you want to "wipe" the other partition, you then use the format command:

format <drive>: /fs:ntfs /q

The /q parameter is for quick format (it only deletes then recreates the NTFS meta-files!).

[ValkyerieK7]

What is the knock on quick formats ? I haven't really gotten this idea yet. but I guess it doesn't delete the content thoroughly correct?

[EddiE314]

i dunno, i thought all a regular/quick format did was rewrite the FAT. i always thought of it as a table of contents.

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BTW, booting off the Windows XP cd in DOS mode, Setup allows you to do quick formats, usually what i do is delete the partition i want to reinstall to, and Quick format the RAW partition to NTFS..

[Nemesis]

All,

The /q parameter is used to:

"Delete the file table and the root directory of a previously formatted volume, but does not scan for bad areas. You should use the /q switch to format ONLY previously formatted volumes that you know are in good condition."

[ValkyerieK7]

Thanks for clarification on the matter. Much appreciated.