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From: quimby@madoka.its.rpi.edu (Tom Stewart)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: how do i change the interleave on a ide drive?
Message-ID: <SA+&1P*@rpi.edu>
Date: 13 Feb 91 07:05:54 GMT
References: <1991Feb11.205602.6901@nntp-server.caltech.edu> <15082@uudell.dell.com>
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Nntp-Posting-Host: madoka.its.rpi.edu

timd@hotwheel.dell.com (Tim Deagan) writes:

>	The best answer is YOU DON'T!  Definetly don't low-level your
>	IDE drive.  Seagate and Conner won't even guarantee they can do
>	it at the factory, if you manage to do it yourself you'll just
>	end up with a very expensive paper weight.  As far as the interleave,
>	it's set for the drive.  Changing it won't increase performance, if
>	you change it from 3:1 to 1:1 or 2:1 you'll end up degrading 
>	performance by requiring the drive to make an entire pass around
>	the cylinder to get to the next sector.  IDE's is what they is and
>	they ain't what they ain't.  :-)

Sooner or later, many IDE's will either need re-low-leveling, or
replacement.  I, for one, would rather re-format.  The new version
of Seagate's Disk Manager (4.02?) is supposed to allow formatting
IDE's, but I haven't tried it yet.
  
Here are a couple of valid reason's why low-level is needed:
  
    1.  'Minor' crash, causing loss of data and format.
  
    2.  User accidentally or intentionally runs a low-level format
        program.  (Trojan horse, confused user, upset employee, etc)
  
    3.  After 5-10 years, the format sometimes is "lost".  (Maybe
        some of the newer drives will actually last this long.)
  
Quimby
  
(mailer disfunctional, replies to: quimby@mts.rpi.edu, quimby@rpitsmts.bitnet)