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- From: mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539)
- Subject: Re: How can I low-level format IDE drive ?
- Message-ID: <1992Nov5.175934.3269@mksol.dseg.ti.com>
- Organization: Texas Instruments Inc
- References: <1992Nov1.194255.8799@menudo.uh.edu> <sauron.720737823@femto.engr.mun.ca> <1d4brjINNb6c@terminator.rs.itd.umich.edu> <92308.035019DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu> <tooraj.720955806@daneel.rdt.monash.edu.au>
- Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 17:59:34 GMT
- Lines: 38
-
- In <tooraj.720955806@daneel.rdt.monash.edu.au> tooraj@daneel.rdt.monash.edu.au (Tooraj Enayati) writes:
-
- ><DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:
-
- >>In article <1d4brjINNb6c@terminator.rs.itd.umich.edu>, pauls@css.itd.umich.edu
- >>(Paul Southworth) says:
-
- >>>In article <sauron.720737823@femto.engr.mun.ca> sauron@femto.engr.mun.ca
- >>>(Patrick Ryan) writes:
- >>>>wjin@cs.uh.edu (W. Woody Jin) writes:
- >>>>
- >>>>You can't. You can repartition your drive, and you can reformat the
- >>>>partitions, but you cannot (and DEFINITELY should not) low-level an IDE.
- >>>>Not unless you are a card-carrying, certified guru (or masochist) :v).
- >>>>SHouldn't this be a FAQ?
-
- >>Well, that's simply silly. The "Format Track" command is in the ATA spec
- >>for a reason. The result of the command is completely up to the drive,
- >>of course; many drives will simply ignore it. In any case the drive will
- >>know to do the "right thing", so I can't envision what harm could be
- >>caused. It's no different than telling a SCSI drive to format itself,
- >>and I'm not aware of any paranoia associated with that.
-
- >I agree completely. I have a WD Caviar280 I have low level formated it
- >twice in the last year and half. Both time I had no other option.
- >Once I was tring to install an MFM card in the system and its controller
- >card stuffed up my IDE hd's FAT nothing could recognize that the
- >drive was there both times I used the disk manager and I don't even have
- >a bad sector on the drive.
-
- Why would you have to do a LLF because the FAT got messed up? The FAT
- is done via the HIGH LEVEL format.
-
- --
- "Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
- in the real world." -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.
-