| Mental Patient on Tue, 17 Jun 2003 15:20:18 -0400 |
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On Tue, 2003-06-17 at 13:42, Jeffrey J. Nonken wrote: > It's possible, just not advisable. IDEs come preformatted and tested > with bad sectors remapped. That's the real reason they're > "error-free". If you low-level format, you basically wipe out that > information. Unless you are completely desperate, or really know what > you're doing, I recommend against low-level formatting. > Well, yes. You need to verify your media afterward. > Of course, if you're an uber geek, and you don't care, all bets are > off. > > But PLEASE don't recommend it as a general solution. > Fair enough, I certainly didn't go out of my way to list the risks, and from a self centered point of view I've only done it a handful of times and never had a problem. Then again, I've never been afraid of breaking things. So my bad for not having a disclaimer, thanks for pointing that out. I'd have felt bad if someone tried that and had a negative experience. Wasn't thinking. > If you do a Format first, you'll be fine. Just destroy the directory > information. > > Of course, if you want to do a parallel install, as I mentioned, > there are different problems. These days I install the OS on one > drive and most of my data on another. When it's time to re-install, > just wipe out the OS drive and start over. > Indeed. Another bit of useless trivia, if you have the upgrade only version of win9x and want to use it as a full install, format C: and create c:\windows\win.com, it can be an empty file. Thats all windows verifies when determining if you're upgrading vs installing. I haven't used this trick in a long long time, but I'm fairly sure it works for 95a&b as well as 98. Never used ME. -- Mental (Mental@NeverLight.com) Express yourself, just say yes Attachment:
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