HDD GURU FORUMS

What does the

HDD Low level Format Tool

do other than writing zeros? Where does the formatting come in?

Perhaps this should not be called 'formatting'?

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/e ... Q/203931en

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Actually the term "low level" is a bit of a misnomer. The low-level process first used years ago in MFM hard drives bears little resemblance to what we now call a "low-level format" for today's SATA and ATA (IDE) drives.
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Spildit wrote:

ashiekh wrote:Perhaps this should not be called 'formatting'?

What should you call "formatting" then ?

I'm old school. To me a low level format is something that you do at the firmware level. For example, a floppy diskette can be low level formatted but an IDE HDD cannot, at least not with regular ATA commands. If the "HDD Low level Format Tool" incorporates Format Unit commands for certain HDD models, then I'd be inclined to call that a low level format feature of some kind, especially if it can merge the G-list into the P-list.

Unfortunately the tool seems to be poorly documented, so no-one can tell what it actually does.

It must do more than just write zeros to justify the name 'low level format' and a price tag.