Drive format

Drive Format may refer to any of the following:

1. When referring computer drives, most commonly a hard drive, drive format is a type of file system on the hard drive. Three of the most common formats, or file systems, are FAT (file allocation table), FAT32 and NTFS (NTFS file system). The FAT format was used before Windows 95. FAT32 was used with Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me. NTFS was used with Windows 2000 and later operating systems.

2. Drive format can also be in reference to the erasing of all data on a storage drive, like a hard drive or USB (universal serial bus) flash drive. A basic format only removes the pointers to the files on the drive. The files themselves are still technically there, but no longer visible and can't be easily retrieved. To truly delete all files, you must perform a type of format called zero filling.

File system, Hard drive, Hard drive terms, Operating System terms