32lim@gw.wmich.edu (05/29/91)
I was just wondering: Is it possible to LOW LEVEL format a Floppy Disk? I remember a program somewhere that cliamed to do it. How does one TOTALLY blank (ie: unformat) a F.Disk? Chris
rich@mont.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel) (05/31/91)
In <1991May28.133503.323@gw.wmich.edu> 32lim@gw.wmich.edu writes: >I was just wondering: > Is it possible to LOW LEVEL format a Floppy Disk? > I remember a program somewhere that cliamed to do it. > How does one TOTALLY blank (ie: unformat) a F.Disk? DOS FORMAT does a low level format on floppy disks. It does not format hard disks, it only verifies the sectors and constructs the directory and FAT. The need to distinguish between a "format" and a "low level format" arises from the fact that the dos format command is misnamed (at least for the hard disk case). Rich
campbell@cutmcvax.cs.curtin.edu.au (Trevor George Campbell CC361) (06/07/91)
32lim@gw.wmich.edu (Chris) writes: >I was just wondering: > Is it possible to LOW LEVEL format a Floppy Disk? > I remember a program somewhere that cliamed to do it. > How does one TOTALLY blank (ie: unformat) a F.Disk? ANY program that formats a floppy disk should do a low level format of the disk. The normal DOS FORMAT command certainly does, although Norton's Safe format, QUICK FORMAT choice probably doesn't (from memory it just rewrites the Boot Block, FAT and Root Directory (ie: the HIGH LEVEL FORMAT stuff). All a Low Level format does is write the Sector / Cluster headers onto the disk without these, the disk will be unreadable (to most/all operating systems). So before you use a floppy you MUST Low Level Format it (just use DOS's FORMAT) As to how to Totally blank (ie: unformat) a F. Disk ??????? BLANKING a disk can be achieved by FORMAT a: or b: as reqd. HOWEVER, once a Floppy has been formatted (except by Safe Format or the likes) it can NOT EVER be unformatted as ALL data on the disk is GONE for GOOD !!! Hope this helps..... -- Trevor alias <**<TOMCAT>**> tuo em tel esaelP ,lanimret siht edisni kcuts m`I pleH ( for all of you out there who can't read backwards..... Help i'm stuck inside this terminal, Please let me out )