Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware:5880 comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc:6840
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen
From: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Reformat hard disk when moved from 386 to 486?
Message-ID: <3286@sixhub.UUCP>
Date: 24 Feb 91 00:45:30 GMT
References: <12979@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU>
Reply-To: davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen)
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Organization: *IX Public Access UNIX, Schenectady NY
Lines: 42

In article <12979@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> olender@handel.cs.colostate.edu (Kurt Olender) writes:
| I have just upgraded from a 386 to a 486 machine and just moved my
| hard disk over from the 386 to the 486.   Since then I've had some  
| intermittant problems with the disk that causes the machine to crash.

  Sounds like controller to me. If you changed controller brands or
models you should always LL format. If the new bus is faster than the
old, or just because the CPU can look at the status registers a hair
faster, you may have a controller which is marginal in the new system.

| I've been told that I should reformat the hard disk when moving it from
| a slower machine to a faster one to get the disk sectors properly done 
| for the new machine speed.  

I have moved disks and controllers (as a package) at work from systems
as varied as 16MHz SX to 33MHz 486, and never had a problem. That
doesn't mean you couldn't, but at the same bus speed you shouldn't have
any problem which will be solved by LL format.

| Does this sound like a probably cause of timing problems and machine
| crashes caused by the disk and a reasonable way to cure the problem?

  It doesn't sound like LL format would help, but miracles do happen. If
you can either slow the bus or add a w/s I'd try that first. Also, did
you change to a new BIOS (if you're running DOS)?

| Is a DOS or OS/2 level format all that is required, or would I need
| to do a low-level reformatting as well?
| 
| On a related note, if you change the bus speed via setup, do you need to 
| reformat then as well?

  As I said, I never do. If the bus speed is too fast I've had best luck
with slowing it down or replacing the controller (and LL format with the
new controller *if* you change brand or model). I have put later revs of
WD1006 and WD1007 in without LL format and run for 6-8 months without
problems.
-- 
bill davidsen - davidsen@sixhub.uucp (uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen)
    sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX
    moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc and 80386 mailing list
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me