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Thread ID: 22335	2002-07-18 07:20:00	ooppsss she low level formatted her hard drive...what to do next??	dipstick01 (445)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
63316	2002-07-18 07:20:00	Hi all, A friend has just rung asking how to get her computer going again. It appears that when told to go into setup to install a game she likes she went into the bios setup instead and then proceeded to do a low level format. Having never done or played with this before I have no idea what to do next to get things going again. The only information I have on the puter is that it is a pentium 100 as they were given the system the day before. I have had her try to run the seagate HD diagnostic tool I had but that just reports that it cannot find the drive. She can still get into the bios setup but it appears the HD has gone walkabout....or has it?? Any info would be greatly appreciated	dipstick01 (445)
63317	2002-07-18 08:19:00	Sounds like you will need a DOS boot disk, boot from it and run fdisk (needs to be on the boot disk), then dos format (also needs to be on the disk), then a new install of windows. Naturally everything on the PC has now gone, and I hope all the original CDs are with it. Will need the drivers, OS etc.	godfather (25)
63318	2002-07-18 10:16:00	If your friend is sure that she did a low level format - and it is possible that the BIOS in a Pentium 100 would still have that feature - the hard drive is beyond easy repair. A low level format - as opposed to the recent term that is erroneously used when overwriting a hard drive with zeros - removes references to heads, cylinders and sectors as well as much else. Without this basic information a high level - or DOS - format cannot be done and thus no partitioning, installation of software etc. To recover from a low level format requires software from the drive manufacturer. The older (and smaller) the drive, the less likely the software is available. That you have used Seatools - presumably on a Seagate drive - and no hard drive is detected (and Seatools will detect but not test non-Seagate drives) is a good indication the drive is not being detected by BIOS. Ergo it's stuffed for some reason. Check the computer when it boots however to see whether the hard drive is detected by BIOS. If not, then time to purchase a replacement drive.	Merlin (503)
63319	2002-07-18 10:47:00	The opinion of the web seems divided on this, see the comments from pcguide: Warning: You should never attempt to do a low-level format on an IDE/ATA or SCSI hard disk. Do not try to use BIOS-based low-level formatting tools on these newer drives. It's unlikely that you will damage anything if you try to do this (since the drive controller is programmed to ignore any such LLF attempts), but at best you will be wasting your time. However some say its terminal and others not. May depend on how intelligent the controller is. But you would have needed to be determined to get that far in to start with...!	godfather (25)
63320	2002-07-19 05:35:00	There was a low level format in the AT BIOS, intended for MFM drives . They needed to be used because the track position depended on the drive orientation, and it also allowed you to map out bad sectors, so that the OS would never see them . That was accessed with the DOS DEBUG programme . As far as I know, the format programme in BIOSs intended for IDE drives just refreshes the sector headers . That is not a destructive operation . Many controllers actually "dummy" the responses to such a programme . The drive manufacturers aren't stupid . A true IDE low level format, as performed in the factory actually modifies the EEROM in the controller, mapping out bad sectors and tracks . That is so dependent on the actual implementation of the disk and its controller that it IS NOT CAN'T BE IN A BIOS . There are lots of drive manufacturers . They make thousands of models . The lady with the problem has probably panicked . First, get into the BIOS setup . "Set default settings" . "Autodetect disks" . "Save and Exit" . This should find the disk . Then try booting from a floppy to DOS, FDISK, then FORMAT . Or just install an operating system (from a CD -- which might need the boot device order in the BIOS changed) .	Graham L (2)
63321	2002-07-19 10:47:00	Ok........thanks all for the help so far. She has just dropped the puter round here and I have confirmed it is an old seagate drive. I looked under the hood and was horrified....someone has been practising their butchery skills here I think....sellotape wrapped around wires twisted together with no solder etc. Anyway I set the bios to autodetect and no joy on detecting the drive. The seagate tools cannot find the drive. I tried using the ultimate boot disk and 98se and ME boot disks to no avail.........I get the message bios installed sucessfully every time it starts up but then the cd drive has evidently died as it no longer works either and this causes the boot disks to lock up when they cannot install the drivers for the cd. I'm currently surfing seagates website and have managed to locate the instructions for installing this specific drive as new so will try that and keep you posted. Any other help though would still be appreciated.	dipstick01 (445)
63322	2002-07-19 10:59:00	If all else fails; Gibson Research at grc.com has a tool called FIX-CIH (near the bottom of the page) which repairs damage caused by the CIH virus. Rebuilds partitions etc. That may or may not work in this case but it's worth a shot if nothing else is helping. (I like long shots - they have been kind to me in the past!!!) Good luck	Bryan D (895)
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