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From: calloway@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM (Frank Calloway)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: IDE format degradation
Message-ID: <12070005@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM>
Date: 21 Mar 91 16:54:03 GMT
References: <272.27D7467C@umagic.FIDONET.ORG>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Loveland, CO
Lines: 20

>The story seems to be that IDE drives should not be low-level formatted, yet 
>some people have without causing noticeable harm.  Be that as it may, how does 
>an IDE drive maintain it's format.  Is it not like other formats where there 
>are simply magnetic "marks" on the disk indicating sectors and such.  Can 
>programs like Spinrite, that refresh the format, be used? 

I have yet another variation on this same question.  Did drives ever need
periodic low-level formatting before the Spinrite people (Gibson Research)
began telling us how important it is?  I've used several drives for years
without reformatting them and never had a noticeable problem or found that
the performance deteriorated.

Yes, I own a copy of Spinrite.  I use it because it finds disk defects
more accurately than anything else I've seen.  I use it after formatting
a new drive and then put it away again.

I'm not saying that periodic low-level formatting isn't necessary.  Does
anybody else have an opinion?

Frank Calloway