Where can I get a program that will do a low lvl format on my HDD?

[Reverend Maynard]

Howdy all. I was wondering if anyone knew how one would go about performing a low lvl format on a HDD. I assume I need some kind of program to do it, but I have no clue where to get one. As always, any help is greatly appreciated.

[xortam]

Check your BIOS. My SCSI BIOS on my P2B-S will do a ll format.

[The PIT]

What type of disk are you trying to low format. You ain't supposed to low level format ide devices.

[Reverend Maynard]

It is actually a laptop hdd. I have been told I have to choices to make the drive lively again, low lvl formating and possibly using a program to fix bad sectors. I can fdisk the drive, but it always freezes in the middle of formating it.

[The PIT]

Thats probably an ide device. At one time the ide hard disks stored the relevant drive information on the harddisk so if you low level formatted you couldn't get the drive geometry back. This may have changed I don't know or I could be wrong. Scsi can be low level formatted as I've done this in the past.

[arbymo]

something close to wat u wanna do is to get norton utilities ( even the dos version ) u only need the program diskedit.
u can use diskedit to mark all sectors on the hard disk with zeros.
i did that when i had boot sector viruses.

[SCompRacer]

I've been told you should only low level format an IDE drive with utilities (if provided) by the manufacturer of the hard drive.

Did you perform a scandisk first before you attempted format?



[This message has been edited by SCompRacer (edited 06 April 2001).]

[Reverend Maynard]

I have tried using the MS scandisk but it refuses to even try. I think the reason for this is the HDD has been fdisked, but not yet formatted, since it won't let me format.

[az]

www.maxtor.com/softwaredownload/utilities.html

you can use it for any manufacturer and any drive that's bigger than 504 MB

AZ

[Reverend Maynard]

YAY for AZ. I will give that a shot tomorrow, and if it doesnt work I'll be right back here. Thanks much.

[Reverend Maynard]

Well darn. Tried that Maxtor util, but it's a no go. It told me I have a Toshiba drive and the util won't run. On the brightside, I now know I have a Toshiba drive in there.

[Jorden]

Not only did it give you a shot at looking at the Toshiba site, but for a low level format of a laptop's hdd you should always go to the LAPTOP's manufacterers site!

They should have a range of useful tools on their site for these things. The information is no longer stored on the hdd, but usually comes from the BIOS, including options to start from CD-ROM

The LT mfr might be willing to send you a CD with these tools as well.

Jord.

[SteveC]

Easy way of using most of a dead HDD:

Fdisk the drive in to loads of partitions (like 100-200mb each) then format each one individually. You'll be able to work out where the knackered parts of the drive are and then you can partition around the bad bits (leave 50-100mb either side to be sure) and then have a working HDD again! (albeit it maybe more than one partition)

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Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[Reverend Maynard]

Thanks Steve. I was actually wondering about that last night. Now that I know it will work, and isn't just some crazy idea brought upon by lack of sleep, I definately want to give it a shot.

[SteveC]

I've done that to loads of drives in the past - people bin harddrives cos they have bad sectors. Well, if it's just a bad bit on the disk (caused by a knock or something) then the rest of the drive will be fine. Just hope it's not the drive's head that's failing....

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Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"