Just wondering what people's experiences of this are ?

I've had a few problems installing XP Pro on my Myriad PC (home studio stand-alone), and I've been low-level formatting (sorry, I've been doing a full zero-fill of the drive; apparently a low-level format is done at the manufacturing stage, and can't be done by the end-user) my 2 Maxtor 200 Gb hard drives after each failed install, to enable a fresh installation again.
I've read on various net forums (I've been busy scouring the web on this subject !) that this isn't really neccessary - a Windows format, or a normal format using using your hard drive manufacturer's utility floppy disc will suffice.
A lot of the advice states you'd only need to do a full zero-fill if you are suffering hard drive problems, or have had a serious virus infection.

I'd be interested in people's views on this subject.

Cheers.

Chris.