[syslinux] Slightly OT: Anyone got a PXE bootable HDD low level format tool?

Andrew Stuart andrew at shopcusa.com
Fri Sep 14 13:40:26 PDT 2007


Tim Bates wrote:
> Slightly off topic, but does anyone have a utility for low level 
> formating Maxtor ATA hard disks that can be booted from PXELinux (either 
> as some kind of binary or as a floppy image)?
>
> I just went to get the official tools, but they only have a floppy 
> creator (which won't help me in Linux, or without a floppy drive) and a 
> CD ISO. And it seems 99% of 3rd party software is unhelpfully the same 
> (or is a Windows program).
>
>
> TB
>   
www.micro2000.com - Microscope. I forget what the commitment is, I want 
to say $99 / every other major version. (not forced to upgrade)

Back in the day, they were most vendors source for Low Level Format. The 
format seems to be flawless across any drive we have tried it on. I wish 
I could say the same about the rest of the program. I currently have 
10/11/12/2005 on my pxe/isolinux setups, as the latest version doesn't 
always support older hardware (Locks up during system detection).

Quote from their site: "*Low Level Format* - Performs or initiates a 
low-level format on all drive types (MFM, RLL, ESDI, SCSI, SATA, and all 
IDE drives) even if the BIOS LBA functions are enabled. This includes 
factory-type initialization of all IDE & EIDE drives as well as access 
to true factory-style format routines."

Hope it helps..
-Andrew




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