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From: gemini@homxb.UUCP (Rick Richardson)
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc,net.micro.att
Subject: Re: physical format on pc6300 hard disk
Message-ID: <1323@homxb.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Mar-86 00:49:51 EST
Article-I.D.: homxb.1323
Posted: Fri Mar 14 00:49:51 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Mar-86 02:32:30 EST
References: <411@mhuxi.UUCP>, <405@inuxh.UUCP>
Organization: PC Research, Inc.
Lines: 25
Xref: watmath net.micro.pc:7399 net.micro.att:991


 ... [Context: Simple format program given in BASIC]

I would not ever recommend doing a low level format such as what was
given.  Those sectors are going to be used for a very long time.
You DO NOT want to find out about marginal sectors AFTER they
have been filled with valuable data.  PC-DOS won't find these
when it does the high-level format, either.

The only way I'll trust my data is with a formatting program which
not only does the format, but then spends many passes reading and
verifying the entire surface of the disk.  When a bad sector is
found, the entire track should be reformatted with "BAD SECTOR ID"
indicators, so that it will not be used by PC-DOS or any other
operating system.  Many times I've seen sectors verify for 3 or
4 surface passes, then fail on the next pass.

Any format program that doesn't do this, isn't worth using on my
data. Do you feel lucky?  It's easy to tell what kind of format
you're getting.  If it only took 5 minutes to format your 10/20MB
disk, you may be in for an untimely surprise.  If it took more like
an hour you can sleep a little sounder.

Rick Richardson, PC Research, Inc. (201) 922-1134
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