Low Level Format a Seagate IDE 2.16G
Randis Khan
Hello all!
I need help confirming or destroying a fear that a friend has installed
in me. When I got my brand new color computer (I went from a Mac Classic
to a Quadra630 around two years ago) my friend sternly informed me that
since the HD is an IDE drive that I should NEVER low level format the
drive. Also that such a mistake would RUIN the drive. Needless to say,
he got my attention.
Now enter Apple's handy little formatter/partitioner "Drive Setup".
I noticed that this App has a option that can be enabled to "low level
format" a HD. Nowere in any documentation/READ ME/warning did I see
anything saying not to use this on an IDE equipped Mac. I would think
if something had the potential to destroy hardware Apple would have
minummum two warning dialog boxes pop-up if you even came NEAR an
option such as this.
So, my question is this - Can (or should) I low level format my newly
installed IDE Seagate HD. Any other relitive info is welcome and strongly
encouraged.
Thanks for all your help!
--
Randis Khan rrs...@cts.com San Diego, CA, USA
Stan The Man
In article <rrstone-0605...@randiskhan.cts.com>, rrs...@cts.com
(Randis Khan) wrote:
Apple's latest Drive Setup utility is v1.0.4 and it is optimized for IDE drives.
Stan
--
st...@pro.u-net.com
+++Naked under this Macintosh+++
Greg Andruk
> Hello all!
>
> I need help confirming or destroying a fear that a friend has installed
> in me. When I got my brand new color computer (I went from a Mac Classic
> to a Quadra630 around two years ago) my friend sternly informed me that
> since the HD is an IDE drive that I should NEVER low level format the
> drive. Also that such a mistake would RUIN the drive. Needless to say,
> he got my attention.
>
On early IDE drives, a low-level format sure did trash the thing in many cases.
These days, IDE drives are designed to either ignore the low-level
formatting commands, or simply erase the data in all the sectors without
actually overwriting the low-level formatting information.
If you want to be absolutely sure about your drive, contact Seagate.