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From: user2@cgevs3.cem.msu.edu (Stephen Medlin)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.apps
Subject: Re: Disk Manager and MSDOS 5.0
Message-ID: <0094A7BA.5621FA00@cgevs3.cem.msu.edu>
Date: 22 Jun 91 05:38:50 GMT
Sender: news@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu
Reply-To: user2@cgevs3.cem.msu.edu (Stephen Medlin)
Organization: MSU_Chemistry
Lines: 22

In article <1991Jun20.092801.31571@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>, 1h1a0m@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes:
>In article <GINSBURG.91Jun19164100@rio.cme.nist.gov>, ginsburg@cme.nist.gov (Dylan Ginsburg) writes:
>
>> Why should the drive be low level formatted every 6 months?
>>
>> Doug 
>
>Perhaps to freshen up the track info which, unlike when writing a new file
>to disk, is not written over old track info.  I suppose the read/write heads
>become misaligned with time, just a like a car goes out of tune.  Doing a
>low level format sets everything back to zero, as if you had bought a new HD.
>
Good answer.  It does realign the read/write heads.  I have also heard that it
"freshens" the magnetic moments on a hard disk which start to re-orient
themselves and lose their information.  However, on my MFM hard disk, I
probably did a low level format once in the 3-4 years that I used it (and then
only because my FAT got scrambled).  I've switched to an IDE drive and I've
heard that it is more critical to re-initialize (re format) IDE's than other
types of drives.  Any truth to this?

Stephen Medlin
medlin@cemvax.cem.msu.edu