[TriLUG] data recovery---Linux low-level format program available??

[burnett at pobox.com]

On Wed, 20 Mar 2002, al johson wrote:

>     However, I'm not really talking about a program that will just erase (or
> wipe a hard drive, or do what used to be called a "high-level format"), but
> a program which will test a drive to determine where the bad sectors are
> located and (and this is the most important part:) mark them so that data
> cannot be written to those sectors in the future!!
[snip]
> Then suddenly these programs disappeared and we were told that the new IDE
> hard drives could not be "low-level formatted" anymore. This may indeed be
> the case, but I distinctly reading recently that there was a Linux program
> which could "low-level format" a hard drive.

It's generally not recommended, not always successful, and not really a
great idea for modern drives. Still, here's some references and help if
you want.

From
http://rtvpatch.sourceforge.net/utility.html
"It is highly recommended that you run a low-level format test on your new
hard drive before you start the upgrade procedure. This requires that you
download a utility program from your hard drive manufacturer. Maxtor has
PowerMax, Western Digital has Data Lifeguard Diagnostics, and Quantum
(now part of Maxtor) has Data Protection System. Follow the instructions
for the utility program, and then run the destructive low-level format
option. This will help map out any bad sectors on the
drive. "

Links to the mentioned manufacturers' applications are on the webpage
above.

From
http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue31/tag_badblock.html
"You usually can't "fix" bad clusters --- though you can instruct your OS
to "map them out" (refuse to use them). There used to be a
       software package for MS-DOS called Spinrite (Gibson Software?)
which would do surface analysis of many types of drives and might
       be able to restore bad clusters to use (although it was never
recommended).

       There used to also be procedures for many ST-506 (MFM and RLL) hard
drives and some SCSI drives which would allow the user to
       do a "low level format" of the drive. However with modern IDE and
SCSI drives this option is generally unavailable --- some drives will
       let you sent the low-level format command to them, and their
electronics will blithely ignore your command and send a "success" signal
       back (I've even heard that some will use a suitable delay factor)."


Other links:
http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardwarecentral/tutorials/39/4/

http://www.computing.net/dos/wwwboard/forum/8277.html

regards,
Steve Burnett
burnett at pobox.com