Formatting Options

Formatting options are the controls you use to select how you want your disk(s) to be initialized.  If you want the disks to be initialized as the Mac would normally do it, leave the options in the default settings (with Format, Verify and Write Volume Info. checked). Or you can change them to increase the speed of the process.

Quick Format! will allow you to initialize your disks more than 50% faster!

Format Checkbox

Formatting a disk is what is needed for the Macintosh operating system to recognize a disk.  Formatting a disk consists of writing special information onto it so that the Disk Driver can read from, and write to, the disk.  All applications need their disks to be formatted properly so they can read and write to them.

If you are starting with new disks, you will need to have the "Format" option selected.

Verify Format Checkbox

"Verify Format" checks the disk to see if there are any errors present on the disk, and that it is properly formatted.  It does this by reading each bit from the disk and returns a result code indicating whether all bits were read successfully or not.  This option is optional, it is not needed to properly initialize a disk.  Deselecting this option increases your chances of a "Bad Apple" getting past you, but greatly reduces the time (48% reduction) required to initialize a disk.  If you have a disk that is not working properly elsewhere, you can check it in Quick Format! by having only the '
"Verify Format" option selected. 

• Quick Format! Cannot repair disks. •

Write Volume Info. Button

This option is also optional when formatting new disks.  The volume information is the information which is written to the disk after normal Macintosh™ formatting.  It includes the volume information, volume name, block map, and a file directory for a volume with no files.  If you are going to use this disk from within the Finder, you will have to have Write Volume Info. selected.

If you formatted disks with this option off and found it to be a wrong move, don't worry, all you have to do is use Quick Format! with all the options except Write Volume Info. deselected and it will add the volume information to the disk.

Force To Single Sided

This is where you select which format you want your disks to be initialized under. Quick Format! will initialize either double-sided or single-sided disks in 800K or 1.44meg drives.  Initializing a disk, double sided, will format a disk in HFS (Hierarchical File System). By default, initializing a disk, single sided, will format a disk as MFS (Macintosh File System).  However, if you hold down the option key while formatting, the single-sided disk will be formatted as HFS.

To initialize a disk, single sided, check the "Force to Single Sided" checkbox.

Indexing Disks

You can index disks as they are initialized using QuickFormat!. 

If you press the "Index Disks" button, a dialog will appear asking you what to number the first disk.  After you press "OK", the number you entered will be appended to the volume name after a period.  Example:

Untitled.1
or
Blank Disk.33

If you do not have a volume name in the name box, then just a number will appear and your disks will be named by number only.

Pressing the "Return" key will display the correct name in the name box.  This should be used when the "Index Disks" option is selected, and you manually type in a new name. Otherwise, the disk number will not be displayed after the name.