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From: jc58+@andrew.cmu.edu (Johnny J. Chin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Low-level formatting of hard-drive
Message-ID: <0XcgYUy00W0YMr315a@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 11 Dec 88 19:14:40 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon
Lines: 24


Formating with a program called "Disk Manager" (made by Ontrack) is good.

Another such program is called "SpeedStor" made by Storage Dimenstions (the
software division on Maxtor -- the network hard drive manufacturer).

But as far a I know, all of these programs make calls to the controller's
BIOS routines.  All the hard drive controllers for XT-type machines should
come with a booklet telling you how to format the drive (low-level).  From
my experience, most cases you use DEBUG and do a "G=C800:5" at the "-" prompt.
I'm not exactly sure if this works for the OMTI controller, but in 98% of the
controllers that I've come across in the past 4 years do use this address,
since Western Digital set the standard a while back (1984 or so).

I hope this answers the question about low-level formats.

                                        -- J. Chin (a.k.a. Computer Dr.)
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