The command that every kid in the 90s was terrified to type by accident. FORMAT C: wiped the boot sector and FAT of the primary drive; /Q just made it faster (quick format) but the fear was the same. In an era without cloud backups, one wrong key meant losing everything. Here is the faithful recreation.
A black DOS console fills the screen. Press Esc or wait for the end.
Quick format (/Q) only wiped the File Allocation Table and root directory — the file data stayed on disk and was recoverable with tools like Norton Unformat. Full format also checked every sector. Even a "wiped" disk in the 90s could be resurrected — one of the reasons corporate policies later mandated physical drive destruction.
The classic school prank: sneak up to a friend's PC, hit the DOS prompt and type FORMAT C: /Q. When the "Are you sure? (Y/N)" appeared, they had a heart attack. In reality DOS asked for the label first and then a Y/N, so you had about 3 seconds to hit Esc — but nobody did.