sysop@umagic.FIDONET.ORG (Keith Ford) (03/08/91)
The story seems to be that IDE drives should not be low-level formatted, yet some people have without causing noticeable harm. Be that as it may, how does an IDE drive maintain it's format. Is it not like other formats where there are simply magnetic "marks" on the disk indicating sectors and such. Can programs like Spinrite, that refresh the format, be used? -- __ / \ Micro Magic CBCS, +1(205)830-2362, FidoNet 1:373/12 \__/ BANG: ...!uunet!ingr!infonode!umagic!sysop [__] DOMAIN: sysop@umagic.FIDONET.ORG
calloway@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM (Frank Calloway) (03/22/91)
>The story seems to be that IDE drives should not be low-level formatted, yet >some people have without causing noticeable harm. Be that as it may, how does >an IDE drive maintain it's format. Is it not like other formats where there >are simply magnetic "marks" on the disk indicating sectors and such. Can >programs like Spinrite, that refresh the format, be used? I have yet another variation on this same question. Did drives ever need periodic low-level formatting before the Spinrite people (Gibson Research) began telling us how important it is? I've used several drives for years without reformatting them and never had a noticeable problem or found that the performance deteriorated. Yes, I own a copy of Spinrite. I use it because it finds disk defects more accurately than anything else I've seen. I use it after formatting a new drive and then put it away again. I'm not saying that periodic low-level formatting isn't necessary. Does anybody else have an opinion? Frank Calloway