Tom's Guide | Tom's Hardware | Tom's Games
 |
 |
 |
I know that many of you have been through this conversation many times before, but this time it is a bit different. I am not asking if I should LLF (low-level format) my drive. I know it is neccesary. So don't try to talk me out of it!
I have looked on the internet for a LLF Untility for my drive, which is a Fujitsu MPA3026AT. I could not find this, but they did provide detailed drive information:
Model MPA3026AT
Cylinders 5,086
Heads 16
Sectors 63
Capacity (CHS) 2.62 GB
Sectors (LBA) 5,126,964
Capacity (LBA) 2.6 GBI have heard of programs that can LLF drives with the detailed information of a drive. I have two main questions that I would like answered:
- Is that enough information to LLF my drive
- Where can I find a program to LLF my drive with this informationI heard that FDISK could do it, but I don't know if it is on my computer or not. Please help me out, my computer is completely useless at the current moment.
Just go to Fujitsu's site and look for Hdd diskmanager or disk utils. Do a zero fill and mbr rewrite and your hdd should be accessable if there is no phiysical damage.
Fdsisk does not LLF. Fdisk is easily available from bootdisk.com on thier bootdisks.
The only true LLF is done at the factory when the disk is manufactured.
0 
0
Yeah, after I did that post, I read more and found out that FDISK doesn't do that. The "how to" site I was looking at put low level formatting and partitioning in the same How-to, and it said "FDISK" under needed programs or untilities.
I looked at the Fujitsu site and I found something called the Fujitsu ATA Diagnostic Tool. The discription didn't say anything about LLF, but the keyword was Low Level Format. I also found FJ-IDE Drive Initializer Utility, which the discription is:
This application performs a pseudo-format of any Fujitsu 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch E-IDE disk drive. It erases all hard disk data and initialises it to '00' pattern. You will be able to erase the whole user area including your Master Boot Record, Partition Table, FAT (File Allocation Table), and all the files and data it refers to. If you want to migrate from one OS to another or you want to re-install your OS and want to be sure your drive is 'clean', then you may want to perform this 'ERASE' function.
I think that is what I am looking for. That also had "low level format" in the keyword. Thank you for your help, I think I have it from here though.
0
Uh oh. Found something odd about the "FJ-IDE Drive Initializer Utility". In the vesrion history, in the read me, it says:
Version 1.00 - Date: Nov. 21, 1998
- extracted Erase Feature from Low Level Format Utility and made it as a separate tool (hence, this program version)I am puzzled, does this mean that it was a feature from a Low Level Format utility, that was NOT the actual Low Level Formatting program. Or is it that the Low Level Format program had extra features, so they took out all the extra features and just left the low level formatting?
0
Only if there is no physical damage.
I've recovered half a dozen hdd doing this and the're stil working fine.
0
For the low level format I highly recommend PC-CHECK or PCCHECK, details of which can be found on the web.
To remove bad sectors, using the dos FORMAT command with the retest option set does this if the sector concerned is ok.
A few bad sectors on a hdd is not a problem, and it should be reembered that something caused them to be registered bad in the first place, and it might therefore be best to leave them alone.
Good luck - keep us posted.
0
I would use [ae]fdisk to delete your partitions, then recreate a new one, scan it (surface scan) with scandisk or something similar.
If there are any errors, *then* do a low level format. Otherwise, *DON'T*. A low level format is not a "zero fill"/"drive wipe"
Best regards,
Ben Cadieux
0
Instead of telling us you know what LLF is, why not say WHY you want to do it. Most manufactures no longer provide this type of utility, only as been posted here many times a ZERO FILL utility.
Why? becouse more drives were killed than cured using LLF, thats why!
Ask yourself this... Do I want to trust may data to a drive that is less than 100% reliable?
0
Since you do not say what is wrong with your drive, and only that you know that LLF is the only way. Help for you is limited. However I would surgest you look a MS Scandisk before you try a Low Level Format. Which as I stated before may destroy your drive.
Microsoft ScanDisk program which is a disk analysis and repair tool used to check a drive for errors and correct any problems that it finds (DOS Version 6.2 onwards)
The Microsoft ScanDisk program is a disk analysis and repair tool used to check a drive for errors and correct any problems that it finds (new with DOS Version 6.2).
The ScanDisk program checks and fixes the problems in the following areas:
File allocation table (FAT)
File system structure (lost clusters, crosslinked files)
Directory tree structure
Physical surface of the drive (bad clusters)
DoubleSpace volume header (MDBPB)
DoubleSpace volume file structure (MDFAT)
DoubleSpace compression structure
DoubleSpace volume signatures
MS-DOS boot sectorView
http://www.easydos.com/scandisk.html
for more info
0
Alrighty, let this be clear about the process of Low Level Formatting.
1. Low-Level Formatting IS the same as a Zero Fill.
2. Low-Level Formatting is GENERALLY safe when done on a SCSI Drive with the SCSI BIOS.It is only the majority of IDE/E-IDE Drives that manufacturers recommend you do not perform a Low-Level Format, unless it is last resort, and you MUST use their utility. Seagate, IBM and Fujitsu all have LLF Utilities.
There is virtually NO risk Low-Level Formatting a SCSI HDD, especially if the Low-Level Formatting utility is built into the SCSI BIOS/Firmware. As a matter of fact, I gave a refresher Low-Level Format to 3 SCSI HDD's today with no problem. It's a very important tool. SCSI is just that much more of a Smart Bus/Interface to be able to have such flexibility, more options, and expandability than IDE (ATA).
An IDE Drive which has not been in use for 2-5 years should probably acquire a low-level format to ensure strengthened sector markings. From temperature changes, and the natural anatomy of aging of the magnetic platters of the hard drive, in turn causes the Sector markings to wear off... You may be able to do a High-Level format if this is the case, install your OS and all, but months or year(s) later you might experience a lot of I/O errors and bad sector marks.
About 2/3 of drives get thrown away when all they required was a refresh Low Level Procedure to be complete. I highly recommend the procedure for Drives that have not been in use, drives that have had severe viruses, and old drives, or unused drives, or a drive that has been exposed to magnetism.Provided there is no Physical Damage, as in a scratched platter from heads that crashed into the disk, or heads that got ripped ruthlessly off of the gimble from a common problem like stiction from older drives, and that there is nothing physically wrong like that, I'd say go for a low level format.
Low-Level Formatting in IDE drives is more commonly termed as "Initializing"
To understand what Low-Level Formatting really is, and what it does, you have to think of in terms of a Whole Pizza, as with partitioning and High-Level Formatting. As silly as what I say below may sound, it's a very true, logical way to think about how Formatting works.
If you want to know if you really need to Low Level Format, run SCANDISK, or CHKDSK for Windows NT/2000/XP Users, and Scan the disk surface. If you find any bad sector markings or if the process freezes and stops at a certain percentage, than the drive may very well require a Low Level Format. If you try a Low Level but the problem still exists, the likelihood is that you have a bad drive.
To better understand Low Level Formatting,
Low-Level Formatting is this:
You have your pizza dough all layed out perfect in a circle (Assuming a Blank Hard Disk with no format of any time or partitions). Now lets pretend you need to make groovings in the Pizza dough (Low Level Formatting) to show where the Pizza sauce (Sectors) should be layed down. So you cut the grooves with a knife to layout where to put the sauce (creating sector layout). After this procedure is complete, you will want to Put some Pizza sauce in those grooves (High Level Formatting). This will give your OS some understanding as to locate what part of the sauce on the pizza is what (what track is what, etc on the hard drive FAT). After this process is complete, you will want to Add Lots of toppings like Cheese, Pepperoni, etc (Adding Data to your currently formatted drive). Although this is not in the right procedure because you must FDISK first to create the partition, logically with a Pizza you must bake it first before you cut it up. But think of Partitioning as Dividing your pizza up to sections when it is done.
Maybe this will clear up a lot of confusing between Low-Level and High-Level Formatting.
I hope this helps, if anyone has any questions, comments, or objections to my post here, please E-mail me at JAYSONZAD@AOL.comThank You! :) and Good Luck!
0
I agree with Jason and highlight the following points.
1) Only ever use manufatures own utilities
on the correct make of drive.2) NEVER use a Universal Low Level Format
Utility.3) Run Scandisk (Chkdsk)first to see if you
have a problem to start with.
High Level Format (Using FORMAT) will refresh most modern drives. It is only the few drives with bad sector markings after Scandisk /f has been run that need further treatment.
0
There is some great discussion and explanation in this thread. LLF and HLF are often confused with Hard drives. One alternative to a LLF is the program Spinrite. Very nice program that can protect data and restore data where no other programs can. It works with FAT16 and FAT32, but not NTFS. Definitely a program to keep in mind for all you techs.
http://grc.com/default.htm
0  |
 |
 |
This post is quite old and has been locked from receiving new replies. Please create a new posting instead.
| Ads by Google |
