Low Level Formatting

[GC74]

I've got a probably stupid question, but pls answer me anyway: how can I format an Hard Drive at low level?

Thanks in advance to all of you <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0">

[Dr Jam]

There are a number of ways, Im sure others will added some info about useful utilities you can use there are quite a few eg norton disk doctor, eurosoft troubleshooter etc

what Ive used in the past is
some motherboards bios's offer this as an option - Low level format and done it that way

[Gr82B8]

I have done a low level format with the bios before. The only problem is..most new bios settings don't support low level formatting anymore. I had to use on old computer (4 or 5 years old) I believe it was Award Bios. So if you have some old computers laying around..you may want to try that.

[Antimatter]

Tuff-test Pro is my favourite utility for low-level formatting. Has Read-write test, can mark bad sectors and can do a Conditional LLF, avoiding the previously marked bad sectors. A true test of a drive's worth. <IMG SRC="smilies/smile.gif" border="0">

Unfortunately the LLF doesn't work with most Quantum HDDs(the ones you most need it for).

[Ruslan]

Low-level from BIOS sometimes can be dangerous,especially if old motherboard's BIOS doesn't support correctly large capacity drives directly.

Zero-fill (or like that) utility from HDD manufacturer's site would be better (at least much more safer).

I use low-level utility,what I mentioned here:.
I can share with that utility,let me know. <IMG SRC="smilies/wink.gif" border="0">

[GC74]

Thanx all of you guys. I appriciate your help.
Now that I think about it, <IMG SRC="smilies/rolleyes.gif" border="0"> I have a WD and Maxtor disk utils: I might check there. If that does't work, I will to check some HardDrive company's web site and see what I can find there.

In the worst case scenario, Ruslan, it would be so nice to have tour help.

Thanks again. <IMG SRC="smilies/wink.gif" border="0">

[Scuba]

I use a IBM program to do it.
it's running of a fdd and suport almost all the models.

It help that you have a IBM......

[LongAgo]

Microscope seems to do a fairly good job too. But that app is a little pricey.

[Darren Wilson]

I have always used this little utility to low level format a IDE HDD & not had any failures yet with it.

To use it is very simple.

• Set HDD to AUTO in BIOS
• Boot using a bootable disk with the LF.exe on it
• Run LF and answer yes to the question if the correct size shows for the drive.

[GirlGeek]

I must agree with Rocco, the LF utility is the best and it's not messed up once on me.

I would suggest using that one.

[YaronMann]

Originally posted by Obi1Kenobi:
<STRONG>I've got a probably stupid question, but pls answer me anyway: how can I format an Hard Drive at low level?

Thanks in advance to all of you <IMG SRC="smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0"></STRONG>

[O.B. Oglesby]

The instalation floppy that came with my 40G Maxtor 7200RPM HDD has a lot of useful stuff( for a tech wannabe like me anyway). I had a troublesome 30G drive that I jumpered as a slave and used the installation floppy to low level format the drive. No more problems. It is running 98SE & 2000 dual boot. I removed the ribbon cable from the master when I LL formatted the drive. Don't know how I discovered the slave setting to run the LL. Just stumbled into it, I guess. The option wasn't offered when jumpered as a master. Probably overlooked something. But it worked.

[Deac0nFr0st]

Originally posted by RoccoSiffredi:
<STRONG>I have always used this little utility to low level format a IDE HDD & not had any failures yet with it.

To use it is very simple.

• Set HDD to AUTO in BIOS
• Boot using a bootable disk with the LF.exe on it
• Run LF and answer yes to the question if the correct size shows for the drive.

</STRONG>

where can i get a copy of the LF.EXE you mentioned?


thanks!

[tyremanb]

clicking on the underlined link should do it.