low level format

I gateway PC which is quite functional but afflicted with many small problems.
I'm wondering if anyone can tell me if I can do a low level format of my HD,
and then re-install my OS from the "installation discs" that came with the PC.

Richard

--
Message posted via WindowsKB.com
http://www.windowskb.com/Uwe/Forums....setup/200703/1

Personally I'd simply format and install, a "low level" format is very
rarely required and is manufacturer specific however if this is really
what you feel you should do then you need to visit the website of the
manufacturer of your hard disk to see if they have the necessary utility
available. Low level formats aren't a method of fixing small problems
with an operating system but rather used to try and deal with deep seated
problems with a hard disk.

I suspect that what you want to do is to format your hard disk which is
done by booting to DOS with a Win Me boot floppy and running the Format
command.

For more information see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 255867 -
"How to Use the Fdisk Tool and the Format Tool to Partition or Repartition
a Hard Disk" (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=255867) as well as the
file CLEANHD.TXT which is in the Win 9x folder on the Win Me CD and also
as KB271673 - "Windows Millennium Edition Cleanhd.txt File Contents"
(http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=271673).. This should help you get
started.
--
Mike Maltby



atlantis43 via WindowsKB.com u24690@uwe wrote:

I gateway PC which is quite functional but afflicted with many small
problems. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me if I can do a low level
format of my HD, and then re-install my OS from the "installation
discs" that came with the PC.

On Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:25:22 GMT, "atlantis43 via WindowsKB.com"

I gateway PC which is quite functional but afflicted with many small problems.
I'm wondering if anyone can tell me if I can do a low level format of my HD,
and then re-install my OS from the "installation discs" that came with the PC.

See http://cquirke.mvps.org/reinst.htm

Rather figure out those "many small problems", in case you end up with
one large problem instead ;-)

Seriously; many types of problems can corrupt the process of "just"
rebuilding the system software, so you'd wish you could Undo.



-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
Hmmm... what was the *other* idea?
-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

CQuirke;
Your links are very interesting, but the specific troublesome problem seems
to elude 'figuring out'.
Generally, the year-old PC with lots of ram & free memory & cache seems to
work extremely slowly, predominantly in MSAccess2003. I've already had my
shop evaluate (and simply reinstall WinXP and MSOffice), and it improved only
slightly. (I don't reeally use many other apps where I can evaluate
processing speed, so I can't tell if the whole system is slow.)
The shop failed to write zeros to my WD hard drive before they re-installed,
even though WD recommends that this should be done before any OS re-install,
so I think that this is a good place to start (in spite of your link).
It might be some incompatible software that I previously installed that is
slowing things down (I did load some old apps that are not XP compatible), or
it might be some malware (though norton & zonelabs don't find anything), or
maybe my system just needs replaceing.
Thanks again
Richard



cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user) wrote:
On Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:25:22 GMT, "atlantis43 via WindowsKB.com"

I gateway PC which is quite functional but afflicted with many small problems.
I'm wondering if anyone can tell me if I can do a low level format of my HD,
and then re-install my OS from the "installation discs" that came with the PC.

See http://cquirke.mvps.org/reinst.htm

Rather figure out those "many small problems", in case you end up with
one large problem instead ;-)

Seriously; many types of problems can corrupt the process of "just"
rebuilding the system software, so you'd wish you could Undo.

-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
Hmmm... what was the *other* idea?
-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

--
Message posted via WindowsKB.com
http://www.windowskb.com/Uwe/Forums....setup/200704/1

Out of curiosity can you give a reference please to where WD say to write
zeroes before installing an OS. I would be interested to read this since
I have never done this in many years of working with PCs and would be
interested to learn their reasoning for this suggestion.

Not that it is relevant to the question of "writing zeroes" but I hope you
appreciate that you are posting to a newsgroup supporting those wishing to
setup the old Win Me operating system rather than XP, hence the
"windowsme" in the title of the newsgroup.
--
Mike Maltby



atlantis43 via WindowsKB.com u24690@uwe wrote:

CQuirke;
Your links are very interesting, but the specific troublesome problem
seems to elude 'figuring out'.
Generally, the year-old PC with lots of ram & free memory & cache
seems to work extremely slowly, predominantly in MSAccess2003. I've
already had my shop evaluate (and simply reinstall WinXP and
MSOffice), and it improved only slightly. (I don't reeally use many
other apps where I can evaluate processing speed, so I can't tell if
the whole system is slow.)
The shop failed to write zeros to my WD hard drive before they
re-installed, even though WD recommends that this should be done
before any OS re-install, so I think that this is a good place to
start (in spite of your link).
It might be some incompatible software that I previously installed
that is slowing things down (I did load some old apps that are not XP
compatible), or it might be some malware (though norton & zonelabs
don't find anything), or maybe my system just needs replaceing.
Thanks again

Source for above statement (for RE-INSTALLING an OS) can be seen on WD KB msg
#1211, virtually verbatim!
Also, a top level IT acquaintance tells me (as I, with my limited PC
knowledge understand it) that there can frequently be 'duplicate' files that
are corrupted (perhaps due to malware, improper uninstall procedures, etc.)
that can be causing system malfunctions, and the only way to solve the
problem is to truly 'eliminate' all such files.
Richard.
Mike M wrote:
Out of curiosity can you give a reference please to where WD say to write
zeroes before installing an OS. I would be interested to read this since
I have never done this in many years of working with PCs and would be
interested to learn their reasoning for this suggestion.

Not that it is relevant to the question of "writing zeroes" but I hope you
appreciate that you are posting to a newsgroup supporting those wishing to
setup the old Win Me operating system rather than XP, hence the
"windowsme" in the title of the newsgroup.
CQuirke;
Your links are very interesting, but the specific troublesome problem
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
don't find anything), or maybe my system just needs replaceing.
Thanks again

--
Message posted via http://www.windowskb.com

atlantis43 via WindowsKB.com u24690@uwe wrote:

Source for above statement (for RE-INSTALLING an OS) can be seen on
WD KB msg #1211, virtually verbatim!

"Western Digital provides software utilities that can erase all the data
on a hard drive. Writing zeros to a drive is recommended any time an
operating system is to be reinstalled on a boot drive or whenever a blank
drive is desired. "

Recommended maybe but by no means required. I have never had to write
zeroes to a hard drive before either first use or installing an operating
system and I've been working with PCs now for the best part of twenty five
years. Since I have never experienced problems that might require a low
level format I don't intend doing so now. g

Seagate in contrast say "Perform this "low-level-format" only if all other
POWERMAX tests have passed (or by direction of Seagate Technical Support)
and the hard drive is still not performing correctly."

Also, a top level IT acquaintance tells me (as I, with my limited PC
knowledge understand it) that there can frequently be 'duplicate'
files that are corrupted (perhaps due to malware, improper uninstall
procedures, etc.) that can be causing system malfunctions, and the
only way to solve the problem is to truly 'eliminate' all such files.

I'm sorry but for the greater part your friend is incorrect. Formatting a
hard disk is all that is required to remove a previous operating system.
It is very rarely necessary to write zeroes, this is normally only
required, and multiple times, when disposing of hard drives that
previously contained sensitive material so as to prevent its recovery
using specialist tools.

The only other time that I would contemplate performing a low level format
is if I was experiencing major read or write problems on a hard drive and
I had run the manufacturer's test utility such as Maxtor's PowerMax or
Seagate's SeaTools and the utility had made this recommendation.
--
Mike Maltby
MS-MVP Windows

Oh, I forgot that I'm currently planning on trying such a procedure on a
system running ME, and on another system running XP. My string actually
started with a question about my ME system.
Richard

Mike M wrote:
Out of curiosity can you give a reference please to where WD say to write
zeroes before installing an OS. I would be interested to read this since
I have never done this in many years of working with PCs and would be
interested to learn their reasoning for this suggestion.

Not that it is relevant to the question of "writing zeroes" but I hope you
appreciate that you are posting to a newsgroup supporting those wishing to
setup the old Win Me operating system rather than XP, hence the
"windowsme" in the title of the newsgroup.
CQuirke;
Your links are very interesting, but the specific troublesome problem
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
don't find anything), or maybe my system just needs replaceing.
Thanks again

--
Message posted via WindowsKB.com
http://www.windowskb.com/Uwe/Forums....setup/200704/1

On Sun, 15 Apr 2007 21:12:37 GMT, "atlantis43 via WindowsKB.com"
CQuirke;

Hi!

Your links are very interesting, but the specific troublesome problem seems
to elude 'figuring out'.

OK...

Generally, the year-old PC with lots of ram & free memory & cache seems to
work extremely slowly, predominantly in MSAccess2003.

Ahh... is there an av that is scanning "document files" while they are
in use? It's appropriate to do so, given that MS broke the data/code
distinction by allowing macros and scripts to be embedded in these
"data" files, and having these run automatically... but you can
imagine the performance impact of having a large Access database being
scanned every time it is updated or even cough accessed.

The shop failed to write zeros to my WD hard drive before they re-installed,
even though WD recommends that this should be done before any OS re-install,
so I think that this is a good place to start (in spite of your link).

I don't think that's likely to be relevant, as long as the HD was
file-system-formatted at the time.

What will trully clobber NTFS performance is if the NTFS volume is
mis-aligned so that it is created with 512-byte clusters. That can
happen if originally partitioned for FATxx and then converted to NTFS.

I'm using BING (www.bootitng.com) for partitioning, and that has a
setting to "align for NTFS" that I use even for FATxx volumes. Old
versions used to ask "do you intend converting to NTFS?".



------------------------- ---- --- -- - - - -
I'm on a ten-year lunch break
------------------------- ---- --- -- - - - -