Low Level Format

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 8:02 am

The way to do this is?

Never really considered it, but since these raptors have had a ton or crap on them and formatted a bunch of times I think I want to. Give it a fresh feel I guess

lol

konomi · Post by **konomi** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 8:21 am

Here is Seagate's response to this very question. Hope it helps.

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/ ... t.html#why

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 8:32 am

I have a western digital, think that tool is safe for a WD drive?

konomi · Post by **konomi** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 8:41 am

Here is the link for Western Digital
http://support.wdc.com/

Also check out
http://www.ameriwebs.net/groupworks/george/western.htm

CableDude · Post by **CableDude** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 8:56 am

I would just FDISK, recreate the partition and the format C:.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 9:05 am

CableDude wrote:I would just FDISK, recreate the partition and the format C:.

I just saw roundeyes post with his pic of his hdtach score and redid mine and i'm down to 76 megs a sec sustained, it was higher before. wanted a real clean slate.

drdoug99 · Post by **drdoug99** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 1:20 pm

Important drive information (servo, sector layout, and defect management, etc.) is stored in the low-level format at the factory. This information is designed to last the life of the drive and therefore it is not possible to low level the drive outside the factory. Although some drive manufactures and BIOS provided so-called "low level format utilities", they actually perform a write-read verify of the drive’s user data sectors, and do not actually perform a low-level format. In the event of a corrupted master boot record or boot block virus, use FDISK /MBR command to restore the master boot record. If you need to low level format your hard drive then check the drive manufacturer and download such an utility from its website. Every drive manufacturer provides just such a utility. Below is a list of hard drive manufacturers with a links to low level format utilities.

Note: If normal (high level) hard disk formatting is required, you can use DOS FDISK command to first erase and create partitions and then use FORMAT. It is also a good idea when you hard disk becomes inaccessible to see if it is just the system files that are corrupted. Most of the time, it is the case. SYS will do the job of replacing system files. Therefore, low level format is always of LAST RESORT when you encounter HDD problems.

IBM(Hitachi)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/utils.html

Maxtor
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/index.htm

Fujitsu
http://www.fel.fujitsu.com/home/drivers.asp?L=en&CID=1

Samsung
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDis ... /index.htm
FAQ: Low level format

Western Digital
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp

CableDude · Post by **CableDude** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 2:22 pm

YARDofSTUF wrote:I just saw roundeyes post with his pic of his hdtach score and redid mine and i'm down to 76 megs a sec sustained, it was higher before. wanted a real clean slate.

Oh I see, your trying to beat Roundeye in some competition.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 3:01 pm

CableDude wrote:Oh I see, your trying to beat Roundeye in some competition.

I wanna get back to where I was, I skipped the low level thing tho, on the fresh install now and my new logitech dinovo keyb and mouse are here!

gotta get hd tach, gaim, adn install bf42 adn DC and i'm all set