# A little bit of advice for free. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 12, 2005, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-bit-of-advice-for-free/298949 "2005-04-12T11:22:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-bit-of-advice-for-free/298949/1 "2005-04-12T11:22:38Z")
If you are thinking about formatting a 200GB hard drive for NTFS before work… _don’t._ It takes 'kin ages! ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-bit-of-advice-for-free/298949/2 "2005-04-12T14:01:21Z")
Now see, if you had posted in your “Accumulated Advice” thread about this beforehand, someone might have set you straight. Or not, judging by some of the advice dispensed in that thread 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-bit-of-advice-for-free/298949/3 "2005-04-12T15:35:17Z")
But then I’d have to give advice to the previous post. The format was still going (a third done) an hour after postring so I cancelled it and did a quick format, which took a few seconds! I hope I didn’t damage it by stopping a full format halfway.