On 30-Jun-1999, [ Kaa [EMAIL PROTECTED]@hotmail.com <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >From: charles kaufman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > >I'm trying to avoid repartitioning. I will if nothing else works. > >But I don't know what 'low level format' means. I remember doing that > >for DOS before there was IDE, but thought it wasn't needed anymore. > >Thanks for all the information. > >Chuck Kaufman > > > > Low-level format is *not* needed any more -- that is, as long as your hard > drive isn't fubared (as in fscked up beyond all recognition). It may not be > called a low-level format, either. I have a couple of Maxtor drives and > there is a Maxtor utility for them which will do the low-level format. In > the utility itself the operation is called a "Write test", but the docs > explain what it is. Basically, this will re-write the MBR and all the > sectors and "restore the drive to the condition in which it was shipped". I > had to use it once when I managed to screw up my MBR and it's backup as > well. Thankfully, this happened when I was installing a drive so there was > no data on it. > Do you know a generic way to use the backup copy of the MBR, because I once accidently hosed my MBR and had to reinstall.
Thanks, Pete.
