The Multi-Boot Configuration Handbook

Partition Formatting

With the exception of PartitionMagic and Partition Commander, the tools I've described so far in this chapter create, delete, or otherwise modify partitions, but they don't do much to the contents of those partitions. Before a partition can be used, it must contain an appropriate filesystem. Placing the appropriate filesystem structures on the partition is referred to either as formatting or creating a filesystem, depending on the OS in use. As I describe shortly, the latter is the more precise term, but the former is quite common, particularly in Microsoft-style OSs.

Low-Level and High-Level Formatting

The problem with the term format is that it refers to two different processes:

• Low-level formatting— The low-level format ...