Intro
No, formatting is a low-level process used to physically map out the surface of
the platters in the drive – for a 9GB drive it takes hours. Striping is an
installation process where you download firmware to the drive telling it how to
behave, who it's talking to, etc – for a pair of 4GB drives it take 10-15
minutes. It's similar to installing partitions. Some formatting utilities, in
an effort to be user friendly and reduce bells and whistles, bundle the two
processes into one "button", so when you install you also format – this is true
for all floppy drives – but not many hard drives anymore.