Is it safe to low level format an IDE drive hooked up to a Tempo card using
Apple's Drive Setup? How about up to date third party disk formatters?
I've been going through the Supermac mailing list archives and have come
accross contradictry advice on this. Some people have said that a low level
format on an IDE drive hooked up to a IDE PCI card can cause hardware
damage to the drive. Others have said, "...there is no circuitry on IDE
drives that allow a low level." So it's not possbile to do a low level
format on an IDE drive.
If it's not safe to low level format an IDE drive then how does one repair
an IDE drive which has bad blocks? Most advice I've seen states that if bad
blocks are found by various utilities (such as Norton Utilities, TechTool
Pro) it is best to low level reformat the drive rather than use the utility
to map out the reported bad blocks.
Thanks,
Anthony Adachi
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(416) 785-5213
------------ Various extracts from the past below: -------------------
>------------------------------
>
>Message-Id: <v03110702b6c19b412129@[172.22.6.130]>
>Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 13:00:06 -0500
>From: Dusan Kostic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Re: [SM] ata/ide/bus troubles/success
>
>
>>
>>I would STRONGLY recommend NOT doing a low level format of an IDE drive.
It
>>is well documented that this could cause physical damage to your hard
drive.
>>( Apple modified Drive Setup after this was revealed).
>
>This is true, except that the option was never present in the Apple
drivers
>- they always just zeroed all data. The modification was in the interface,
>removing the incorrect statement.
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 11:14:48 -0700
>From: "Aughenbaugh, W" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Re: [SM] ata/ide/bus troubles/success
>Message-id: <
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>m>
>
>AFAIK, it is impossible to low level format an IDE drive. They are low
level
>formatted at the factory. The zero data option is all there is for IDE.
>SCSI, on the other hand, CAN be low level formatted. Even PCs cannot low
>level an IDE drive. The utilities, Apple's included that support both
>interfaces allow zeroing for IDE and low level for SCSI. A quick format
just
>blows away the directory and writes a new one.
>
>As someone else pointed out, the writing zeros is to exercise the
>sectors/clusters to produce a media error map for the OS/driver. Now sure
>what IDE does with the old map, SCSI ignores existing errors and
re-creates
>a totally new map.
>
>On a SCSI disk, the low level format TOTALLY erases ALL data, including
the
>track/sector/CRC whatever and then rewrites everything from scratch. This
>cannot be done on a IDE drive.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Dusan Kostic [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2001 12:00 PM
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Re: [SM] ata/ide/bus troubles/success
>
>
>
>>
>>I would STRONGLY recommend NOT doing a low level format of an IDE drive.
It
>>is well documented that this could cause physical damage to your hard
>drive.
>>( Apple modified Drive Setup after this was revealed).
>
>This is true, except that the option was never present in the Apple
drivers
>- they always just zeroed all data. The modification was in the interface,
>removing the incorrect statement.
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 12:00:28 -0700
>From: "Aughenbaugh, W" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Re: [SM] Low level format/ ide drives
>Message-id: <
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>m>
>
>On Tuesday, February 27, 2001 9:37 PM, Andy Joiner wrote/quoted.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>
>>>I would STRONGLY recommend NOT doing a low level format of an IDE drive.
>It
>is well documented that this could cause physical damage to your hard
drive.
>( Apple modified Drive Setup after this was revealed). The problem comes
in
>to play when you are using a Mac ide pci card. Because all utilities will
>see the drive as a scsi disk, it will allow you to do a low level
>format...don't....be warned...<<
>
>
>Can we confirm/expand upon this? Does the author of this post mean to say
>that the
>problem was solved for normal ide drives when apple modified drive setup,
>but that it
>still exists when using drives connected via ATA pci cards? I've never
heard
>anything
>like this before.
>
>Someone else wrote that it was impossible to do a low level format on an
ide
>drive... but
>with the sonnet tempo installed, all the options are available, including
>both low level
>and zero all data. So will checking low level a)do nothing, b) damage the
>drive, or c)
>perform a "zero all data" instead ??
>
>thanks,
>ANDYJ
>
>-------------------
>
>I don't have an EDI drive (except in a G4). My understanding is that the
PCI
>IDE cards fool the system into thinking that the drive is SCSI, presumably
>consuming a SCSI ID. However, the card cannot fool the drive into thinking
>that it is SCSI. There is no circuitry on IDE drives that allow a low
level
>format. The controller requires certain data to reside on the platter(s).
>That is not the case with SCSI. So, SCSI - Low Level - Possible; IDE - Low
>Level - NOT POSSIBLE.
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
--
SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and...
/ Buy books, CDs, videos, and more from Amazon.com \
/ <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/lowendmac> \
Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives |
--Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED]| & CDRWs on Sale! |
Star Trek Collection: Movies 1-7 on VideoCD, $38.88 from CoolVCD
<http://lowendmac.com/ad/coolvcd.html>
- - - - -
SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml>
Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/>
Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks!
<http://www.applelinks.com>
