2024-04-26

low-level hdd diagnostics

Performing a Low Level Format on a SCSI disk drive

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM02 mins

Low Level Format How do I perform a Low Level Format on a SCSI disc drive?

  1. Download and install SeaTools_enterprise software.  Use SCSIMax for Maxtor or Quantum SCSI drives.
  2. Click START | PROGRAMS | SEATOOLS ENTERPRISE to run the program. It will scan any SCSI device(s) installed in the system.
  3. Highlight the drive you would like to format.
  4. Click VIEW | ADVANCED. This will take you to the “Advanced Menu” of the software.
  5. Click ADVANCED | FORMAT. This will bring you to another screen. Click the “Format” tab.
  6. Click the “Format Now” button. You will be prompted to make sure you would like to continue.
    WARNING: All data will be lost!
  7. If you are sure, click “Yes” to continue. If you are not sure, click “No” to exit the utility.
  8. The selected drive will now format and bring your drive back to factory settings.

The advantage to using our low-level routine as opposed to others (such as from SCSI BIOS utilities) is that once you start the routine it can be disrupted at any time. With BIOS utilities, disrupting could damage the drive and render it inoperable. This can also occur from an unexpected power outage.

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Low-level Hard Drive Diagnostics Freeware: MHDD

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM03 mins

MHDD is the most popular freeware application for low-level HDD diagnostics.

MHDD Interfaces Supported:
MHDD supports these interfaces: IDE, Serial ATA, SCSI. Also there is a possibility to access an USB storage, there are drivers for emulation (USB->SCSI).

What can MHDD do?
This software can make precise diagnostic of the mechanical part of a drive, view SMART attributes, perform Low-level format, bad sector repair, different tests and tens of other functions.

Platform:

· Intel Pentium or higher CPU
· 4 megabytes of RAM
· DR-DOS, MSDOS version 6.22 and higher
· Any boot device (USB, CDROM, FDD, HDD)
· A keyboard

IDE/SATA Controllers:

· Any integrated into motherboard north bridge (addresses: 0x1Fx for primary channel, 0x17x for secondary channel)
· PCI UDMA boards (detected automatically): HPT, Silicon Image, Promise, ITE, ATI and so on. Even some RAID boards are supported. In this case MHDD works with each physical drive separately
· UDMA/RAID controllers integrated into motherboard as additional chip

Hard disk drives:

· Any IDE or Serial-ATA drive with size bigger than 600Mbytes, in other words, LBA mode is supported in full.
· Any IDE or Serial-ATA drive with size lower than 8388607 TBytes, in other words, LBA48 mode is supported in full
· Any SCSI drive with sector size 512-528 bytes
· Any SCSI removable media such as tape, CDROM. Maximum sector size for such devices is 4096 bytes

What’s New in MHDD v4.6?

· Fixed rare hangs when working with slave device
· Fixed TOF/ATOF problem with determining maximum file size when operating with SCSI devices
· Fixed displaying firmware version instead of serial number in SMART ATT
· Added PCI device ITE 8211 PCI IDE
· Added PCI device VIA VT6421 IDE RAID
· Fixed several issues with some modern BIOSes
· Jumps while scanning now logged properly
· Resets (“R” key) while scanning now logged properly
· ASPI drivers now have latest versions

Related Links:

· MHDD FAQ
· MHDD Documentation
· Change log
· Magic Boot Disk with MHDD

MHDD Free Download:
MHDD 4.5 (older version, but includes ATA/SCSI Terminal)
· MHDD 4.5, self-extracting floppy image
· MHDD 4.5, CDROM iso-image
· MHDD 4.5, just-an-archive (MS-DOS executables only, no SCSI support)
· MHDD 4.6

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