how you do Low-Level Format?

[andylawcc]

as title says

 

[obenton]

SCSI drive, use the program that's in the SCSI adapter's configuration utility. IDE drive, use the drive manufacturer's utility.

 

[Rudee]

Most all drives are already low level formatted from the factory.

 

[rmblam]

click start/shutdown/restart in ms-dos mode. At the prompt type cd.. then format c:

Say bye bye to everything on the disk.

Some people like to use 3rd party formatting programs though. Not sure why though.

Here is a link to seagate and some relevant info.

 

[JW310]

rmblam: that's what they call a high-level format. Low-level formatting usually required a utility from the manufacturer. From my experiences, it's best to use caution when low-level formatting a hard drive. Do one thing wrong, and the drive's finished.

JW

 

[Lalakai]

If you're formating your primary hd make certain you have an excellent boot disk with all the needed files for getting your system up and running (command.com., os, dvd/cdrom drivers, ect.). Include on the floppy "fdisk"; this will allow you to low-level reformat along with setting partitions. You can usually find fdisk in a dos directory; should be able to dl it from somewhere on the net also. I usually run fdisk from the floppy and it works well. Like rmblam said, make certain you want to do this as your hd will be wiped completely clean. Great way to start fresh but it can be scary and somewhat time consuming. Good luck and let us know if you more info.

edit = oh yeah. as a precaution go into cmos first and get all the info relating to heads, cyclinders, ect for the hd you're reformatting. Occaisionally things can get ugly and you'll have to manually set the hd parameters if the system can't automatically recognize the "new" hd.

,............ummmmmmmmm, some beer and pizza might help the night also.

 

[rmblam]

Ah, your right. MY bad.

I read this,

"What does "low level formatting" mean?

Actually the term "low level" is a bit of a misnomer. The low level process first used years ago in MFM hard drives bears little resemblance to what we now call a "low level format" for today's ATA (IDE) drives. A better name for today's low level formatting utility is intermediate- or mid-level formatting. This is sometimes referred to as the "initialize" or "re-initialize" process. The basic purpose of a mid-level format is to erase everything currently on the drive.

Why would I want to low level format my drive?

The most common reasons to low level format an ATA (IDE) hard drive are:


The drive has contracted a virus that cannot be removed without destroying the boot sector.
The drive is developing bad sectors at an increasing rate.
You are changing from one operating system to another and wish to remove everything from the drive. "

and made the leap. If you read on it says "Caution: The Low Level Format options of Disk Manager are the only safe methods for use with Seagate and Conner hard drives. Some system BIOSs may include a Low Level Format option; use these at your own risk, as this may produce undesirable results.

Disk Manager can be downloaded as a part of the DiscWizard package. It includes two low-level format options, partitioning options, and high-level formatting options. Zero Fill writes zeros in each data sector up to the complete capacity of the drive and will clean up some file system defects. The Low Level option performs a track by track initialization for the entire capacity of the drive, but does not spare bad sectors.

The download routine for Disk Manager creates a bootable diskette. Boot from the diskette to start Disk Manager. After startup, Select Advanced Options | Maintenance | Options | Utilities. Select the drive you want to erase, then select Zero Fill or Low Level.

Note: The Zero Fill option runs more quickly and removes data just as thoroughly as the Low Level option."

 

[SUOrangeman]

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdX

Gotta love the simplicity (and the inherent danger, ) of Linux.

-SUO

 

[andylawcc]

urrr. why Linux,... and I thought it would be DOS!

 

[chemwiz]

For IDE drives, I've used Maxtor's MAXLLF utility, it works great on everything I've tried, conner, seagate, WD, IBM, etc. It will sometimes fix a bad drive, as long as the BIOS recognizes it. I'd guess it does have the potential to kill the drive, too, but it's a good option to remember. Spinrite will also low level IDE drives, and can recover data and bad sectors, too. Takes about 24hrs to run, and costs about $80.

 

[JW310]

rmblam: just learned that in my A+ Cert class, so thought I'd mention it... after reading the info from Seagate's page, I can see where it would be confusing. But I have a question.... will low-level formatting allow me to fix a problem with the FAT of a drive?

JW

 

[chemwiz]

A low level will destroy the FAT table, when you high level (format c it builds a new one. What kind of problem are you having with FAT?

 

[rmblam]

IBM HD users:

I read earlier at IBM that old versions of Partition Magic, etc.. use small cluster sizes. This can lead to Scandisk and defrag problems/errors. They recommend using the OS or the IBM utilities.

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