Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!husc6!uwvax!geowhiz!circle!Peter.Dinda
From: Peter.Dinda@circle.UUCP (Peter Dinda)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Low-level formatting of hard-drive
Message-ID: <167.23AC3AAC@circle.UUCP>
Date: 18 Dec 88 21:09:27 GMT
Organization: The First Circle BBS, Madison WI (608) 271-0687
Lines: 15

Ragiv, there are other possibilities other than doing a complete low 
level format (and thus having to back up all the data)  Programs such 
as SpinRite will dtermine the optimum disk interleave and then low 
level format the disk to it without destroying data.  They do this 
by reading a track from the disk, putting it in memory, reformating 
the track and then putting the data back and going on to the next track. 
It can take a while (Took three hours on my 238R/27x combination), 
but certainly the way to go if you don't have a tape backup.
 


--  
Peter Dinda - via FidoNet node 1:121/1
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