After all this, I'm unsure if you found your answer. Let me wrap it up.
1. Today's drives don't do or offer Low Level Formatting (LLF.) The reasons are technical in nature and have to do with the stratospheric capacities we now enjoy.
2. Magnets are not good for electronics the depend on such magnetic fields of their own. Not only drives can be damaged, but a few have done self-destructive tests on monitors and other devices as well. They all get to buy new things if they want to fix it.
3. LLF is a bygone procedure but I still must know about it since I occasionally run into so now ancient SCSI drive on a server that needs to keep running. While I know they are just postponing the inevitible, its OK to LLF that old 200 Meg SCSI drive and start over. I love it when I can backup their world onto a 1 cent CDR on my laptop.
4. Just like your new car, not as much can be serviced in your garage anymore. I'll share that my wife's car is a spiffy Honda Civic Hybrid. There's not much one can do under that hood but add windshield wiper fluid and I am unsure if I should stock a bottle of the 0-20W oil since it just doesn't burn that and with all the changes it gets, I don't get to top it off.
5. In closing, I hope you are learning more about the progress of PCs. Its fun to know the old ways, but it can upset people as we progress slowly to a monolithic box with 1 part in it. Don't laugh, it's bound to happen.
Bob