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[supermop]

That why I like the low level format

Tonight, backed up the important files, and completely wiped the HDD. Reinstalled the OS, and all the hours of updates, etc. It's now MUCH quicker

Maria/Hannah are now users, so they can't install the rubbish that caused it to die in the first place

You'll find it pretty impossible to do a true low level format on a current HDD, unless you happen to have one of those £200k fancy gadgets (in which case can I borrow it)

Gutman format! Writes a zero to each bit of the drive 32 times. Then get a strong magnet and wipe it over the drive. Cheaper than £200k of fancy gadgets

[TheBoy]

That why I like the low level format

Tonight, backed up the important files, and completely wiped the HDD. Reinstalled the OS, and all the hours of updates, etc. It's now MUCH quicker

Maria/Hannah are now users, so they can't install the rubbish that caused it to die in the first place

You'll find it pretty impossible to do a true low level format on a current HDD, unless you happen to have one of those £200k fancy gadgets (in which case can I borrow it)

Gutman format! Writes a zero to each bit of the drive 32 times. Then get a strong magnet and wipe it over the drive. Cheaper than £200k of fancy gadgets

Doesn't do a low level format though

Plenty of tools out there to wipe disks - you better getting ones that write random bits several times, its amazing what can be read with right equipment - though for most of us, even a normal format c: /u is enough

[Kevin Wood]

Sammy does a pretty good low level format, I find.

Oh, or did you want to use the drive again?


Is there actually something you want to destroy on the drive or are you just wanting to do a clean installation? If it's the latter just reformat and re-install Windows. No need to go to town on the deletion.

Kevin

[TheBoy]

Sammy does a pretty good low level format, I find.

Oh, or did you want to use the drive again?


Is there actually something you want to destroy on the drive or are you just wanting to do a clean installation? If it's the latter just reformat and re-install Windows. No need to go to town on the deletion.

Kevin

I my case, I have a rather annoying fault with a drive - it formats fine, doesn't appear to be remapping suspect sectors, but there is something there as you can here Winodws retry, then mark disk a 'At risk'.  Hence, want to do a proper (analogue) LLF to map out potentially bad sectors.

I know disks are cheap, its just me not wanting to throw away useful stuff thats not really knackered.  I do wonder if I'm being tight, but I don't think its about the cost

[Kevin Wood]

I'm not sure how, it at all, you can low level format a modern drive because all the physical characteristics are hidden behind the LBA interface and block mapping. In fact, is it windows retrying and remapping blocks or the drive itself doing so transparently?

Best course of action is probably to see if you can find a utility from the drive manufacturer to show status of bad blocks and such like. That might let you tell it it reformat itself too.

Kevin

[TheBoy]

I'm not sure how, it at all, you can low level format a modern drive because all the physical characteristics are hidden behind the LBA interface and block mapping. In fact, is it windows retrying and remapping blocks or the drive itself doing so transparently?

Best course of action is probably to see if you can find a utility from the drive manufacturer to show status of bad blocks and such like. That might let you tell it it reformat itself too.

Kevin

Manufacturers LLF utils can do it, but poor job - you need the analogue machine to do a decent job

[supermop]

That why I like the low level format

Tonight, backed up the important files, and completely wiped the HDD. Reinstalled the OS, and all the hours of updates, etc. It's now MUCH quicker

Maria/Hannah are now users, so they can't install the rubbish that caused it to die in the first place

You'll find it pretty impossible to do a true low level format on a current HDD, unless you happen to have one of those £200k fancy gadgets (in which case can I borrow it)

Gutman format! Writes a zero to each bit of the drive 32 times. Then get a strong magnet and wipe it over the drive. Cheaper than £200k of fancy gadgets

Doesn't do a low level format though

I was of the impression that a low-level format was blanking the drive with zero bits to the point the magnetic impression isn't traceable?

[TheBoy]

That why I like the low level format

Tonight, backed up the important files, and completely wiped the HDD. Reinstalled the OS, and all the hours of updates, etc. It's now MUCH quicker

Maria/Hannah are now users, so they can't install the rubbish that caused it to die in the first place

You'll find it pretty impossible to do a true low level format on a current HDD, unless you happen to have one of those £200k fancy gadgets (in which case can I borrow it)

Gutman format! Writes a zero to each bit of the drive 32 times. Then get a strong magnet and wipe it over the drive. Cheaper than £200k of fancy gadgets

Doesn't do a low level format though

I was of the impression that a low-level format was blanking the drive with zero bits to the point the magnetic impression isn't traceable?

No, thats a high level format (although around 10 - 12 'generations' of previous data can be read with right equipment).

LLF is about physical characteristics, such as sector relocation (which is why no IDE/SATA/SCSI disk should show bad sectors, despite having them), skew (perfomance), and addressing.  Few other parameters can be put on as well.