How to do a low level format and reload operating system?

Question

I  believe my registry is corrupted.  I am going reformat my hard drive and reinstall from original disks. My son told me last night that I should also do a low level format to ensure ridding my computer of any 'vermin' which might have caused the corruption.   Can anyone give me instructions on how to do a low level format and also reload operating system?

Rijko · Answer

your son has 'old' knowledge - this was a good advise in the old days.   Nowadays a low-level format is not needed, and not advised. If you find a tool that claims to be able to low-level-format, personally i would not use it ; it may even damage the disk.   As for a re-install, the XP forum FAQ holds it all. Drivers, updates, even a complete step-by-step re-installation guide. Should be easy. Good luck !

syzygy2 · Answer

Thank you for your answer, MrDoom. I am going to go for a clean install as suggested earlier. :smileyhappy:  Not looking forward to it, but if I am successful, I have Dell forum to thank also.   Don't forget to Vote tomorrow, Everyone! :womanhappy:

MrDoom · Answer

You cannot do a low-level format, only hard drive manufacturers can do that. Just a normal format will be fine.

syzygy2 · Answer

Thanks Rijko,   I think you are on the right track.  I appreciate your advice. I am going to take it. :smileyhappy:

MrDoom · Answer

Good luck with it. I plan on doing a clean install of XP Pro and Kubuntu Linux on my Laptop once i figure out what the PBR is and if it will stop checking for the 3 Dell Partitions on boot after a clean install.

stonent · Answer

Stepper motor based drives could be low level formatted and interleaved for best performance.

Today's voice coil drives (pretty much everything from the 90's and newer) have track information written on to one side of one platter so the heads know where the tracks are laid out. Also they use a 1:1 interleave because the heads can jump to tracks very quickly.

Since a voice coil drive doesn't have physical stopping points like stepper motor drives, there has to be positioning information stored on the drive.

The best you can hope for is to download a drive utility and to a zero-fill or similar. Then partition, and then high level format.

syzygy2 · Answer

Thank you for your reply stonent.  I think your suggestions are way over my head, but I really appreciate your feed back. Guess I'll just do a plain , not to complicated for me clean install.   syzygy2

Windows General

How to do a low level format and reload operating system?

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