Formatting Partitions

After you have created partitions, you will need to format them. Choose the partitions that you would like to format. All newly created partitions should be formatted. In addition, any existing partitions that contain data you no longer need should be formatted. However, partitions such as /home or /usr/local must not be formatted if they contain data you wish to keep (see Figure 3-10).

	Note
	It is never necessary to check for bad blocks on a virtual disk.

If you wish to check for bad blocks while formatting each filesystem, please make sure to select the Check for bad blocks while formatting checkbox. Checking for bad blocks can help prevent data loss by locating the bad blocks on a drive and making a list of them to prevent using them in the future.