The 'quick' (/q) just leaves the data in place, just clears the fat if I remember correctly. Very nice if you don't care about that.

I think the GUI 'format' tool for formatting in Win9x will not do uncondiational format. You need to use the DOS 'format' tool (with /u switch) to use the whole disk (without the unformat file). :-/

>>> lxy at cloudnet.com 07/16/01 10:49AM >>>
I use them all the time together.  Back in the DOS 5 days if you didn't do
a /u it would sit there and make the "unformat file" which usually took
longer than the actual format of the drive.  A /q/u made the quick format
even quicker.  I've been using that out of habit under Win9x, maybe it's
no longer needed.