Formatting, why not just say Erase?

[photolady]

This popped into my head this morning and since I love to learn, I'm going to ask.

Why say format, what does it actually do beside erase a harddrive or other media. Where did the word Format come from? Not the origin, as some dictionaries will give you. I just want to know who started this whole "Format" thing. And why they considered using that word as opposed to Erase.

[JPnyc]

You have a point. But I think it's format because it formats the disc as it was from the factory. The erasure could be viewed as incidental. A technicality perhaps but why do we drive on a parkway and park in a driveway? Personally I think they oughta call it "pain in the _________."

[Platypus]

I believe it would be because in its original usage, for disks, the disk was not erased at all. Quite the reverse, as floppy disks started life as totally blank platters, and their data storage structures, according to the file system being used (their Format), were created by the Format utility. Its function to erase a disk that already has contents, by re-formatting it, is simply a consequence of re-initialising the data structures to the freshly formatted condition.

"Old" computer terminology was very much governed by the technical process it was describing, rather than the result it achieved for the user. Now much more it is the latter, like you have suggested photolady. For example, to do what would have previously been termed "format" on a CD-RW, burning software usually now uses the term "erase". So they've implemented your idea...

[Steve R Jones]

FORMAT

(v.) (1) To prepare a storage medium, usually a disk, for reading and writing. When you format a disk, the operating system erases all bookkeeping information on the disk, tests the disk to make sure all sectors are reliable, marks bad sectors (that is, those that are scratched), and creates internal address tables that it later uses to locate information. You must format a disk before you can use it.
Note that reformatting a disk does not erase the data on the disk, only the address tables. Do not panic, therefore, if you accidentally reformat a disk that has useful data. A computer specialist should be able to recover most, if not all, of the information on the disk. You can also buy programs that enable you to recover a disk yourself.

The previous discussion, however, applies only to high-level formats, the type of formats that most users execute. In addition, hard disks have a low-level format, which sets certain properties of the disk such as the interleave factor. The low-level format also determines what type of disk controller can access the disk (e.g., RLL or MFM).

Almost all hard disks that you purchase have already had a low-level format. It is not necessary, therefore, to perform a low-level format yourself unless you want to change the interleave factor or make the disk accessible by a different type of disk controller. Performing a low-level format erases all data on the disk.

(2) To specify the properties, particularly visible properties, of an object. For example, word processing applications allow you to format text, which involves specifying the font, alignment, margins, and other properties.

(n.) A specific pre-established arrangement or organization of data. Data in a file is stored in a format that is established by whatever application created the file (i.e., organized the data) and typically needs to be read by the same or similar program that can interpret the format and present the data to the user on the computer screen.

Almost everything associated with computers has a format.

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[104456]

Looking at it from a technical point of view you do not actually erase anything but you do change the state of the magnetic media so that the drive conforms to a format that is recognisable to the system firmware as blank unused media.

[Platypus]

It's correct that on a hard disk, high level formatting doesn't erase any of the data contained in files. On a floppy disk, it does from DOS unless the quick format (FORMAT /Q) option is chosen, and does not in Windows unless the Full Format option is selected (confusing).

[SpywareDr]

In order to retrieve data, the data must be written in some kind of "format".

FORMATting is the initialization of a data medium so that a particular computer system can store data in and subsequently retrieve data from the medium.

Generally speaking, the DOS/Windows FORMAT command initializes the disk in a recording format acceptable to the DOS/Windows Operating System; analyzes the entire disk for any defective tracks; prepares the disk to accept DOS/Windows files by initializing the directory and the File Allocation Table (or NTFS), and optionally transfers the operating system loader (program files). When FORMATting is complete, it reports the total space, amount of defective space, and available space.

In the DOS/Windows PC world, the "FORMAT" command has been available since the release of Microsoft DOS 1.0 (which IBM called PC-DOS) on August 12, 1981, (along with the first IBM/PC).

[photolady]

This is what I was wanting to know. You guys always come through for me and I appreciate it very much. I've learned and that's why I asked the question to start with. Thanks.