Anyone know of a Low-Level Format utility for an IDE drive? 2

[Hobbes]

I'm looking for a utility that will allow me to low-level format an IDE drive that got nuked when one of our sales people spilt coffee on his brand new laptop.&nbsp;&nbsp;I've tried Fdisk, and then formatting the drive, but I start getting bad allocation units about a third of the way through.&nbsp;&nbsp;It's an IBM drive (if that makes any difference).&nbsp;&nbsp;I just hate throwing out a drive if I don't have to.<br><br>Thanks in advance,<br>Hobbes

 

[tashley101]

There is a little utility called &quot;Microscope&quot; (don't know who makes it)&nbsp;&nbsp;that does just that.&nbsp;&nbsp;It will low-level format an IDE drive and flag all bad sectors.&nbsp;&nbsp;Then run fdisk and reformat and the drive is just like new.&nbsp;&nbsp;I have used it on WD's, Maxtors, and Quantums with no problems.&nbsp;&nbsp;I don't know what it costs because my company has a multi-user license.&nbsp;&nbsp;But it is probably cheaper than a new drive.

 

[TheSaint]

acecce : THANK YOU!!! we had a Sony VAIO that we couldn't do anything with it I mean none of :
-Partition Magic
-Fdisk from MS
-Disk Druid
-Fdisk from OS/2 ( and this one got me out of messes before)

worked, the disk was unpartitionable. Sony's support was not up to par and I remembered using a script in debug in a another life to solve these issues. Your post here just save my guys a few hours of sweating tonight and made me look like a hero, thank you very much...

ALT255: when people are looking for a low level format utility, they usually are at a point where writing random info in the boot sector just to allow fdisk to reset it is far better than :
&quot;To all concerned: I would rather blow off my foot with a shotgun than run this little script.&quot;
Sure if you want to recuperate data then it's another story but then you want to use Ontrack's software and utilities not a low level format that would anyway erase any and all data on the disk

[sig][/sig]

 

[TheSaint]

acecce : THANK YOU!!! we had a Sony VAIO that we couldn't do anything with it I mean none of :
-Partition Magic
-Fdisk from MS
-Disk Druid
-Fdisk from OS/2 ( and this one got me out of messes before)

worked, the disk was unpartitionable. Sony's support was not up to par and I remembered using a script in debug in a another life to solve these issues. Your post here just save my guys a few hours of sweating tonight and made me look like a hero, thank you very much...

ALT255: when people are looking for a low level format utility, they usually are at a point where writing random info in the boot sector just to allow fdisk to reset it is far better than :
&quot;To all concerned: I would rather blow off my foot with a shotgun than run this little script.&quot;
Sure if you want to recuperate data then it's another story but then you want to use Ontrack's software and utilities not a low level format that would anyway erase any and all data on the disk
[sig][/sig]

 

[Alt255]

Okay, I guess it's better to stick my foot in my mouth than a shotgun. Undocumented low-level writes to the hard drive have always raised the hair on the back of my neck.

Now, ease off, guys. I was only wrong once in this thread but seems to be getting a little warm in here.

Hmmm... maybe I deserve it....

[sig]<p> <br><a href=mailto: > </a><br><a href=

http://www.vorpalcom.com>A

plain black box</a><br>Don't sit down. It's time to dig another one.[/sig]

 

[kc0bfv]

I think I'll just sit back and laugh - lol
This is actually a hillarious thread [sig][/sig]

 

[Index]

Actually, it is a little funny but not in a humorous way. I believe that the concerns about this bit of code were perfectly legitimate. It could be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands.

Debug allows a user to compile a script into the executable COM file format. Let's say this one was compiled to a file called WIN.COM and a prankster found a way to copy it to the root of somebody's C: drive. The last time that &quot;somebody&quot; booted his computer would probably be the last time he booted it.

One of DOS 7.X's idiosyncracies is that it executes the first WIN.COM that it finds. The first place it looks is in the root of the boot drive, not the Windows directory.

Users beware.
[sig]<a href=mailto:CraigL@bc-corp.com>CraigL@bc-corp.com</a><br>[/sig]

 

[Alt255]

Another interesting and potentially dangerous tip.

I tried it. I have a ancient DOS-based file browser called LIST.COM. I copied it to the root of C: and renamed it WIN.COM. The computer rebooted normally, showed the Windows 98 boot logo and immediately started LIST.

Am I to believe that any *.COM file will become the primary shell when it is named C:\WIN.COM? You would think the OS should be able to identify its own components!

I don't have access to an NT system at home but I wonder if the same trick works with CMD.EXE.
[sig]<p> <br><a href=mailto: > </a><br><a href=

http://www.vorpalcom.com>A

plain black box</a><br>Don't sit down. It's time to dig another one.[/sig]

 

[Guest_imported]

wanted to say that the assembly code worked beautifully. i had a machine that i did not have a low-level format utility available for, and the partitions were corrupted in a way that could not be helped by fdisk, even using the /MBR switch. using the assembly code set all the space to unpartitioned and the machine has worked beautifully since. thanks for the tips everyone!

 

[rfeenie]

h-uniq is good. i can email you it feenier@dumgal.ac.uk [sig][/sig]

 

[Guest_imported]

for the hitachi hard drive u can go to device driver matrix on the IBM web site of the respective Thinkpad for example say 380 and download PC doctor Diagnostics for DOS and that utility has a feature to write Zero on the HArd drive .... say to do a low level format on Non IBM hard drive...

 

[Guest_imported]

Hi, thanks for the humour regarding fixing zapped disks. My Digital Hinote VP's disk (IBM DSOa-20810) was zapped when I accepted a windows 98 option to convert from FAT16 to FAT32 to &quot;regain some space&quot;. I lost everything, I resorted to FDISK but format only gets up to 23% at which point it gives up. The low level formatter suggested above only runs in Windows, and the neat debug script didn't help.

What I need is a dos DOS low-level formatter, and then ...

How do I pull the laptop apart to bin the disk. I can't find any screws.

 

[rhsmith]

I have successfully cleared the partition table with the Linux 5.2 fdisk (not druid) on many drives when nothing else would do it. THe same holds true for 6.1/6.2 but you need more than one floppy to boot it.. so I use the single boot disk from 5.2 for this. But I too am looking for a low level partitioner... I had one several years ago that would do any IDE drive... sure wish I had it now...

 

[jamison]

This assembler worked great for me. I had winME/Linux machine that was split into 3 partitions, win ME toasted my LILO somehow...
But... Win2K has rendered a SCSI drive of mine inaccessable by all means (Compaq 9.1 GB) and I'm wondering how would you the same for SCSI? Can you?

Jamison

 

[Guest_imported]

I tried to use the script metioned above on a Sony VAIO PCG-F350 and it did not work for some reason...(help)

It has an IBM hard drive and I have tried to use Partition magic and fdisk (all flavors). I installed WinME on it and a blue screen would come up on startup -- Cannot read from drive c:

I did download a util from ibm.com at the following link:

http://www.storage.ibm.com/techsup/hddtech/welcome.htm

I think the HD is bad... If someone can help please.

 

[jakrabit]

sounds like you have a nice paper weight there... if you are getting &quot;Cannot read from drive C:&quot; errors, then it is time to replace...

 

[Strogian]

Can't you just use any zero-filler (I don't use the term &quot;low-level format&quot; ) and use it on the drive? As long as it detects the drive alright, I'd think it would work. I think I've seen 1 or 2 people suggest something like this, but I haven't seen any responses to them.

 

[Guest_imported]

I'm pretty sure jakrabit is right, I called Sony and sent it to them under warranty.

Thanks everyone!!!!
This was very helpful.

 

[nandas]

Nobody given a useful hints i know that lowlevel format is the one of the famous head ache in pc hardware. acecce given some solution but that also refused by Alt255 then what is the way to get the solution for the lowlevel format.

 

[cfowler]

Hey pal,

I think the point is that if you get a third of the way through the drive and start encountering bad sectors, etc.. then you have to face up to the fact that Huan Valdez has left a permanent mark on one or more of the platters or plugged up the head(s). The dude spilt coffee on the drive right, it's toast. No low level utility will solve that one. However, there is a utility called MBR Restore, works wonders! I'll see if I can't find the link to where I dug it up.

What a conversation on this one. I wouldn't run the script myself, but in this case, chances are the drive is pooched anyhow, so what's to loose. Any information is always there for use of the observer, at the observer's discretion. One and all being professionals here, I would tend to think there would be more common courtesy untoward one another. Shooting down an idea that has not been thoroughly tested by one's self is not a good idea. However, critizising anothers suggestion can degrade the respect of not only ourselves to our peers but our peers to our community.

Take care,

CF

 

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