anybody know how to do a low level format ?

[freap]

can anyone help me, i want to try and do a low level format on a hard drive i have,

[shunga]

As I understand it, a low level format will reduce the capacity on the drive. Why not use a normal format?

[subog]

what is low and normal format anyway?
I always use format c:

is that low or normal ?

[Tipsy ~]

Low level format is usually done via your M/Board if supported. Depending on the drive you got you can make it unusable if you're not careful. Like has been said, why not do a normal format? If you wanna remove stuff 100% use one of the cleansweep type progs first.

[magnatique]

if it's to do a real clean install, and you lways seem to have an error whenever you normally format it, or if you somehow always try to boot off of the cdrom or osmething like that, you might just wanna go and format with the disk that the hard drive manufacturer gave you..

OR, it might just be the bios that stored some fucked up boot sequence, that won't go with a normal format.. if this is the case, check your motherboard manual and reset the bios... then it should boot ok / allow you to have a real clean format..


that happenned to me a few times, if this is the case..

[freap]

thanks, yea thats what it is, i tried a regular format, but i'm still getting errors,
i thought i'd try a low level before , i toss it out.

[ProgGod]

There are plenty of dos utilities around to do such a thing, just websearch http://bbs.adultwebmasterinfo.com/ubb/smile.gif

[TwinTone]

Try format c: \u