| A low-level format, or physical
format, is the first process that must have been carried
out to a new drive before it can be partitioned and
high-level formatted. You cannot low-level format a
drive with the FORMAT command and you must have either
the correct utility for your drive or in-depth knowledge
of the drive you are going to perform the low-level
format on.
Caution! - Most manufacturers recommend
that you should never low-level format a drive - most
modern drives do not require this step!
Most IDE hard drives come ready formatted
from the factory so for new drives you can probably
skip this first step - check the documentation that
came with your drive to see if you need to do a low
level format. If you do, the documentation should be
clear about what to do and provide a low-level format
utility included with your drive.
You should really only consider carrying
out a low level format if the drive is new and needs
to be low-level formatted or you are having serious
problems with the drive such as surface errors.
DIY low-level formats are not recommended because the
low-level format, if done incorrectly, can completely
banjax a hard drive, making it useless.
If you are certain you need to carry
out a low-level format, make sure you use the correct
utility to do it. Any new drive should have been shipped
with a specific LLF program if necessary, otherwise
you may be able to download the relevant (and most up
to date!) program for your drive from the manufacturers
website.
Check out the Techrescue.net drives
datasheet for a list of manufacturers sites.
There are generic programs available
which can be used to perform low level formats such
as Ontrack Disk Manager. These are useful if you cannot
find a specific program for your drive, otherwise it
is always better to use the specific LLF program for
your drive.
Using the LLF program you have chosen,
run the program which will format the entire drive and
prepare it for partitioning. |
Preparing a Hard Drive