From: cstadbt@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr C A Elliott)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: LLF of IDE
Date: 5 Nov 1992 16:20:40 -0000
Organization: Computing Services, University of Warwick, UK
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: clover.csv.warwick.ac.uk


Although the drives are dumped, as far as I am aware there is no physical 
damage to the media: having said that, the drives probably can be recovered 
by the factory by using the required realigning software. Unfortunately, in 
the current technology, it is cheaper to buy a new drive from Seagate than
it is to get the damaged one set up again. I hasten to add that most of the
drives were damaged by people from the on-site maintenance company that
were supposed to go out and repair the drives 8-).

When I LLF a Western Digital drive there were two stages to the format. The
first was to type in the drive parameters (cylinders, heads, etc.) and other
parameters that are never normally seen, but are needed by the controller
of the drive (these were all supplied by WD). After a short while, the 
drive was LLF in the normal sense of the word, and then partitioning etc.

It is true that many drives will act like they have been LLF but have not.
Drives will verify the media, and then report a finished command when 
they are issued with a command to LLF. Of course, IDE drives with either
an XT interface or a switchable interface (such as the Seagate ST351A/X) can
be low level formatted in XT mode but not in AT mode.

If anyone has the Seagate low level formatting program, I like to hear from
them (this is not the same as Disk Manager by Ontrak, which is for RLL and MFM
drives)

Charles

cstadbt@warwick.ac.uk

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: LLF of IDE
Followup-To: Spinrite II on IDE drives
Distribution: world
Organization: Computing Services, University of Warwick, UK
Keywords: 


Although the drives are dumped, as far as I am aware there is no physical 
damage to the media: having said that, the drives probably can be recovered 
by the factory by using the required realigning software. Unfortunately, in 
the current technology, it is cheaper to buy a new drive from Seagate than
it is to get the damaged one set up again. I hasten to add that most of the
drives were damaged by people from the on-site maintenance company that
were supposed to go out and repair the drives 8-).

When I LLF a Western Digital drive there were two stages to the format. The
first was to type in the drive parameters (cylinders, heads, etc.) and other
parameters that are never normally seen, but are needed by the controller
of the drive (these were all supplied by WD). After a short while, the 
drive was LLF in the normal sense of the word, and then partitioning etc.

It is true that many drives will act like they have been LLF but have not.
Drives will verify the media, and then report a finished command when 
they are issued with a command to LLF. Of course, IDE drives with either
an XT interface or a switchable interface (such as the Seagate ST351A/X) can
be low level formatted in XT mode but not in AT mode.

If anyone has the Seagate low level formatting program, I like to hear from
them (this is not the same as Disk Manager by Ontrak, which is for RLL and MFM
drives)

Charles

cstadbt@warwick.ac.uk




Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware