- Joined
- Oct 30, 2002
- Location
- BC, Canada
where do I get a program to do this and how do I do it?
Thx in adavance
Thx in adavance
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Low Lvl Format
- Thread starter Jiggydrag
- Start date
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2001
- Location
- Irvine, CA
What kinda hd do you have? You basically need to go get the program from the manufactures website and run the util. 
OP
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2002
- Location
- BC, Canada
- Thread Starter
- #3
OK i'll try that thx.
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2001
- Location
- Lugoff, SC
isnt format C: /q a low level format?
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2001
- Location
- Irvine, CA
no /q is a quick format, not a LLF
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2001
- Location
- Lugoff, SC
whats the difference? I thought they both just weipped the FAT.
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2001
- Location
- Lugoff, SC
I thought all FATs did that?
The difference between the FAT of a low-level and high-level format is that the high-level format creates a separate FAT so that the OS knows which files are in which clusters. As opposed to the FAT from the low-level format which tells the OS where the sectors and tracks are located.
a low level format completely wipes the disk clean. on a normal microsoft format all it does is change the first bit of every file to make the os thinks its empty. the low level format completely erases the data and can correct errors on the disk. if you think a drive is going bad its a good idea to try a low level format as they can fix some errors and on occasion bring a drive back to life. a llf will also rewrite the boot sector which microsoft formats aren't very good at doing.
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2002
You gotta be careful running a LLF because if you let it automaticly mark off what it thinks are errors, those sectors get permanently marked off as bad even if they weren't.
First thing I do with a new to me HD, is LLF and manually approve any repairs. Takes some patience sitting in front of the computer to respond to any hickups, but you know it's all good when you're done.
I also once had an incorrect CHS selected in my bios, and eventhough 98 installed ok, I kept getting errors using scandisk and it wanted to do a low level scan on auto fix. I said no. After I fixed the bios entry, it still errored out until I just bit the bullet and reinstalled 98. Re-ran scandisk and no bad sectors this time. It would have trashed the HD if I hadn't figured out the root problem and just let windows have it's way.
Either one of these scenarios can damage you HD if you let M$ run the show on its own.
First thing I do with a new to me HD, is LLF and manually approve any repairs. Takes some patience sitting in front of the computer to respond to any hickups, but you know it's all good when you're done.
I also once had an incorrect CHS selected in my bios, and eventhough 98 installed ok, I kept getting errors using scandisk and it wanted to do a low level scan on auto fix. I said no. After I fixed the bios entry, it still errored out until I just bit the bullet and reinstalled 98. Re-ran scandisk and no bad sectors this time. It would have trashed the HD if I hadn't figured out the root problem and just let windows have it's way.
Either one of these scenarios can damage you HD if you let M$ run the show on its own.
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