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General discussion

I don't know where to ask this...

Feb 12, 2004 7:11AM PST

So that happens, I come here.

What does low level format mean?

Discussion is locked

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It's rarely done.
Feb 12, 2004 8:23AM PST
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Re:It's rarely done.
Feb 12, 2004 9:03AM PST

Can exposure to magnetic field damage the low level format of a hard drive?

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Can exposure to magnetic field damage the low level format of a hard drive?
Feb 12, 2004 9:14AM PST

Yes, but the "servo track" can't be rewritten in the field on today's many gigabyte drives. It's now an old-school piece of history.

Bob

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Where are we going here?
Feb 12, 2004 9:17AM PST

Why not just spill the beans on the whole story?

You have a style of metering out the information. It would be a lot easier to just know what make/model drive you want to LLF and the forum can see if it supports it.

Bob

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Re: it is a curiosity...
Feb 12, 2004 10:11AM PST

Because I learned that first you llf then partion and format, but there was no way I knew of to llf at home, much less did I know precisely what it was. Sooo, I was wondering what happens if you have a drive that has had its entire "structure" damaged but was physically alright. How do you repair that. I've heard of people damaging their drives by sticking magnets to the outside of their computers to hold things like on a refridgerator. Thought maybe explaining all that might get a little long winded for very little.

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It has happened before.
Feb 12, 2004 11:07AM PST

And the user gets fairly upset that the return to factory for repair exceeds the price of a new drive. Such behaviours as sticking magnets to hard disks is (please excuse my choice of word here) only what a self destructive person might do. These sort of folk are a little hard to support in the "tech world" since "Tech" isn't really versed in dealing with such personalities.

It looks like IDE drives may have taken yet another price drop. Imagine that 160GB drive for 59 bucks (after rebate) this week.

Bob

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Re: I think more like ignorant was the case....
Feb 12, 2004 11:52AM PST

Although the person who told the story wasn't quite so understanding. It was to the case not the drive and I do not believe the article stated that it damaged the low level format, but it seems to me to be just as vulnerable as the data stored on the disk.

My new drive was on the floor of my apartment in its packaging before I installed it it my machine and I fear my housekeeper came quite close to it with the vacuum cleaner when I neglected to clean up before she arrived. Although it seems to be none the worse, it brought back to mind the fact that strong magnetic fields are not good for hard drives. It also makes me wonder if the performance could suffer or if errors might result in the long run due to the computers inablility to read the drive properly.

I know you can partition and reformat but wouldn't it be a good idea to provide a way for people to be able to correct problems such as this themselves? Accidents happen. What happens if your seven year old plops his magnet collection down on your new drive sitting on the kitchen table before you ever even get it installed and does destroy the format.

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A little about why it's not going to happen.
Feb 12, 2004 9:03PM PST

"wouldn't it be a good idea to provide a way for people to be able to correct problems such as this themselves? Accidents happen. What happens if your seven year old plops his magnet collection down on your new drive sitting on the kitchen table before you ever even get it installed and does destroy the format."

1. It would be nice, but is now technologically unfeaseable. The drive capacities have been pushed to the point that to achieve such, some procedures are factory only.

QUESTION -> Would you live with MEGABYTE sized hard disks rather than GIGABYTE size hard disks to get such a feature?

2. As to the seven year old and magnets. You as the expert in the matter would protect their diskettes and more from magnetic fields. The only good news is the drives are getting so cheap that they are cheaper than shipping it back and forth with the service charges.

Some don't call this progress.

Bob

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Re:It has happened before.
Feb 12, 2004 2:35PM PST

I got gyped! I just paid $80 for a 160GB maxtor yesterday. Although this included an ide controller so I guess it's not such a bad deal.

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The deal...
Feb 12, 2004 8:58PM PST

Was at Office Max this week. Of course it's a sell-out and I don't know if the controller was included.

If I need a CDRW/DVD/HD or such, I always check their web site Saturday to see if I'm going to head down there for a Sunday opening.

Bob

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Re:Re: it is a curiosity...
Feb 12, 2004 10:21PM PST

You heard wrong, you never LLF a drive any more, haven't needed to do that for over 10 years now.

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Wrap it up, I'll take it.
Feb 13, 2004 12:13AM PST

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