20 Feb
1999
20 Feb
'99
7:37 a.m.
Joe wrote:
No, I'm not sure. I'm just using the
initialize command in HP BASIC and
the format command in HP CPM. That's the only "tools" they give you. I
have no idea how to do a low level format on these.
This made think of a problem my friend was trying to solve a while ago. His
boss asked him to fix a 386 because of a quite spectacular Windows 3.11
crash. My friend couldn't even format the hard drive using the traditional
MS-DOS format programs so he tried the Packard Bell diagnostic disk that had
come with his old 486 (terrible machine, everything was built into the
motherboard). It turned out that it was doing a low-level format which
killed the IDE drive. I've never understood why Packard Bell who sold many
of their computers to novices would ship something that could damage the
hardware. To save face my friend just said the Windows crash had messed up
the machine and I let him have one of the 40Mb hard drives I owned at the
time.
--
Gareth Knight
Amiga Interactive Guide | ICQ No. 24185856
http://welcome.to/aig | "Shine on your star"