How to do hard-drive low level format ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fred Zimmerman
  • Start date Start date
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Fred Zimmerman

I have a home-built PC with ASUS AMD motherboard using
VIA/AMD 761 chipset (M 170 CD w. package).

Do I do hard-drive low level format via main BIOS screen/
functions?

I've never done low level hard-drive format procedure before,
and have no idea how it's done.

Fred Z
 
Fred Zimmerman said:
I have a home-built PC with ASUS AMD motherboard using
VIA/AMD 761 chipset (M 170 CD w. package).

Do I do hard-drive low level format via main BIOS screen/
functions?

I've never done low level hard-drive format procedure before,
and have no idea how it's done.
Click to expand...
Most modern hard drives, cannot be low level formatted. Unlike older
generation devices, where the head moved in physical 'steps', and the
numbers of sectors on the track were fixed, modern devices, use a servo
system, with the servo information itself embedded onto the magnetic media,
and can only be written using special tools at the factory. Fortunately, the
drives, also have the intelligence, to not accept low level formatting
instructions, and in most cases triggering a LLF, on such drives, results in
the media being scanned for defects, but no LLF occurring.
Why do you think you need to LLF the drive?.

Best Wishes
 
low level formats went out when IDE replaced MFM, more or less. If you're
running a Microsoft OS Fdisk is the usual software unless you are using XP
where formatting is sort of buried. Lots of formatting info in the microsoft
knowledge base. As the carpenters say "measure twice and cut once" or in the
case of formatting be careful if you have anything on the drive you want to
keep.
 
I think you are mistaking low level formating with formating the hard drive.
If I am reading you post you have built a computer and have a new hard drive
with nothing on. If this is the case and you want to use WinXP all you need
to do is boot of the XP CD and follow the on screen instructions. As windows
starts to install you will come to a screen where you have to set the hard
drive up. Just follow the on screen prompts to set the hard drive up as
FAT32 or NTFS. Let us know if you need any more info.

Glen
 
You can't. The best you can do is write zeroes to the entire hard drive.
This is done with software from the HD mfr's website. This writes over
partitions and the HD master boot record, actually the entire HD writing
area. There's also software for "blanking" a hard drive. This software
writes 0s, 1s, 1s and 0s, etc multiple times to the HD. Believe Linux/Unix
have similar commands available as part of the OS. Some refer to either as
medium level formatting.

High level formatting is creating a file system for the OS involved. The
partition(s) are already created in this instance. An example of this is
the format.com for MS Fat/Fat32 file systems. MS Fdisk creates a
partition(s), and will create an MBR during the process. NTFS and its
partitions are different but are similar in purpose and level of formatting.

I do know some older Ultra-Scsi cards bios can low-level format a scsi HD in
excesss of 4GB. Not sure of today's technology. (showing my age...)

Another reply made a good description of a low-level format and why it can't
be done. If such proceeds, your HD may be unusable after such a process.
Put simply, the factory low-level format is what your PC expects based on
true physical CHS ... AND ... LBA in order to determine its geometry and
capacity.
 
On 1 Jun 2004 05:57:32 -0700, in <alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus>,
[snip]

Do I do hard-drive low level format via main BIOS screen/
functions?
Click to expand...
[snip]

You don't.

The ONLY way to LLF a modern HDD is with the drive manufacturer's dedicated
utility software; and even then, this is often not a "true" LLF (tho'
sometimes, it is, or is close enough to that for the difference to be moot).
I've never done low level hard-drive format procedure before,
and have no idea how it's done.
Click to expand...
[snip]

No surprise. The more interesting question is why you think you want/need to
do this..?

--

Jay T. Blocksom
--------------------------------
Appropriate Technology, Inc.
usenet01[at]appropriate-tech.net


"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759.

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