EMZETT.Formatting
In short: Formatting means preparing a storage device (hard disk, USB stick, SD card) for use by creating a file system on it.
In more detail: The file system determines how files, folders and free space are managed. Without formatting, an operating system cannot store anything on an empty drive.
In Depth
Common file systems
| File system | Typical for | Note |
|---|---|---|
| NTFS | Windows | permissions, large files |
| FAT32 | old sticks, cameras | a single file at most 4 GiB, works everywhere |
| exFAT | USB sticks, SD cards | large files, usable on Windows and Mac |
| ext4 | Linux | stable, standard on Linux |
| APFS | Mac | optimised for SSDs |
Quick or full
A quick format only creates a new file system, the data physically remains and may be recoverable. A full format also checks the drive and overwrites it. For secure erasing a quick format is not enough.
More notes
Always back up before formatting, because the existing data is lost. A drive can first be divided into areas (partitions). In text documents one also speaks of formatting (font, paragraphs), but that is something different.
See also: hard disks, SSDs, Windows, Linux