Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpl-opus!knotts
From: knotts@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com (Tom Knotts)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Don't low-level format an IDE drive
Message-ID: <80330006@hpl-opus.hpl.hp.com>
Date: 2 Jan 91 18:47:31 GMT
Organization: HP Labs, High Speed Electronics Dept., Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 14


I am posting this to possibly save others from repeating the same mistake
that I made.

I bought an IDE disk drive for my AT system from Maxtor (was Miniscribe).
I then proceeded to do a low-level format. Seemed like the thing to do.
Then I found out that these drives are formatted at the factory, and
using standard formatters destroys the defect table. Sure enough, I got
write errors when I tried to use it. The fix is to re-format it using
Maxtor formatting software. This costs $60. 

So... Beware before you do a low-level format on your drives!

tom