Re: [WinMac] Use PC formatted HD on Mac

Changhsu Liu(cpl874[at]mail.optimum.com)
Sun, 10 Jan 1999 23:58:17 -0500

> Don't confuse formatting with initializing. Formatting is platform
>independent, while initializing (for a new file system) is dependant on the
>OS... And this initialization, or "high-level formatting," is where FAT16,
>HFS, NTFS, or HFS Extended is created.
>
> Now, here is where terminology gets confusing: Some formatting software
>refers to "initializing" as "formatting." In this case, initializing is
>high-level formatting. Go figure.
>
> Low-level formatting is where a raw disk is broken down into
>cylinders and
>sectors; and results in a loss of capacity. For example, a 2 MB floppy
>formats out to 1.4 megabytes. Floppy disks are low-level formatted; while
>hard disks are only low-level formatted at the factory.
>
> I hope this didn't confuse you even more!
> Cheers!
> Dan

Thanks for the information. My confusion came from that Hard Disk Toolkit
list "low level" and "quick" as their format type in "auto initialize." How
do you distinguish quick and low level initialization? One takes just a
minute while the low level takes 1 hour (for a 4GB drive)?

Thanks,

Changhsu Liu
cpl874@optimum.com

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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Sun Jan 10 1999 - 21:02:24 PST