sonny@charybdis.harris-atd.com (Bob Davis) (03/26/91)
Should a hard drive which was originally low-level formatted on another controller be re-low level formatted on its present controller? Are there variations from controller to controller that would make you definitely want to do this? Thanks. _____________________________________________________________________________ Bob Davis, UofALA alum \\ INTERNET: sonny@trantor.harris-atd.com | _ _ | Harris Corporation, ESS \\ UUCP: ...!uunet!x102a!trantor!sonny |_| |_| | | Advanced Technology Dept.\\ AETHER: K4VNO |==============|_/\/\/\|_| PO Box 37, MS 3A/1912 \\ VOICE: (407) 727-5886 | I SPEAK ONLY | |_| |_| | Melbourne, FL 32902 \\ FAX: (407) 729-3363 | FOR MYSELF. |_________|
jcburt@ipsun.larc.nasa.gov (John Burton) (03/29/91)
In article <5913@trantor.harris-atd.com> sonny@trantor.harris-atd.com (Bob Davis) writes: > > Should a hard drive which was originally low-level >formatted on another controller be re-low level formatted >on its present controller? > > Are there variations from controller to controller >that would make you definitely want to do this? > >Thanks. > >_____________________________________________________________________________ >Bob Davis, UofALA alum \\ INTERNET: sonny@trantor.harris-atd.com | _ _ | >Harris Corporation, ESS \\ UUCP: ...!uunet!x102a!trantor!sonny |_| |_| | | >Advanced Technology Dept.\\ AETHER: K4VNO |==============|_/\/\/\|_| >PO Box 37, MS 3A/1912 \\ VOICE: (407) 727-5886 | I SPEAK ONLY | |_| |_| | >Melbourne, FL 32902 \\ FAX: (407) 729-3363 | FOR MYSELF. |_________| Hi Bob, I can answer your question with a definite maybe...:-) Doing a low-level format with the new controller is not required unless the old and new controllers use a different interleave factor. If they have the same interleave, then you *might* get away without doing a low-level format (depends on the machine - XT vs AT, and on the controller - onboard BIOS vs no onboard BIOS). Basically it would be a good idea to do a LLF with the new controller becaue: 1) For disks w/ a stepper motor r/w head actuator, periodic LLF is a good preventive maintenance routine. (not needed for voice coil actuators) 2) For controllers w/ onboard BIOS (XT controllers and some AT controllers - AT's have hard disk controller BIOS built into the motherboard BIOS - the infamous AT disk drive tables) it allows you to tell the controller exactly how to work with the drive (Interleave factor, write-precompensation track, reduced write track, head landing zone, etc...) which would help get the optimum performance out of your drive (available storage space, transfer speed, etc...). 3) Its a chance to see if you've developed any new bad blocks on your disk... On the otherhand, if you do a LLF then you'll have to BACKUP/RESTORE the data on the disk, which can be a pain for a large disk... good luck... let me know if this helps... John +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | John Burton | | G & A Technical Software | | jcburt@gatsibm.larc.nasa.gov | | jcburt@cs.wm.edu | | | | Disclaimer: Hey, what can I say...These are *my* views, not those | | of anyone else, be they employer, school, or government| +--------------------------------------------------------------------+