English Amiga Board - View Single Post - Low level format a MFM HD on amiga KS 1.3

snowpile79 · 26 July 2021, 19:56

Ok so the Prep tool DOES do a low level format. Interesting. OK. I did use PREP and did input all the bad blocks in which did create RES0: and populate the first two blocks with data. It also created the first DH0: boot partition (even though I have a non-booting A2090 currently I have a line on a booting A2090a which I will swap to shortly). Prep did not seem to actually do a full low level format though. It seemed to just quickly write the first two blocks immediately within 1 second and quit with no errors/success. Then after doing that, and prep creating DH0 I went and created FH0 and FH1 in the mountlist and formatted those... and then the dang card chewed on formatting every bad block I already fed into the prep command (after multiple tries I created this ticket looking for another tool). I totally understand what you are saying about having to use the controller you plan to actually use the hard disk with... but I'll say this: When I did the low level format in the PC I fed all the bad blocks into the WD bios based low level format tool. It then performed how Im used to.. It spent some time low level formatting the disk (probably 15 to 20 seconds) then finished with a successful message. I then pulled it, put it in the amiga and used the prep command again (like you said, but I didnt feed any bad blocks into it this time). It did its thing, created DH0 (without chewing on the bad blocks this time which I entered into the IBM low level format tool). Then when I created and formated FH0 and FH1 same behavior it did not chew on any bad blocks I marked with the ibm low level format. Also the other bad blocks were now functioning again (well, most... just not a bunch in the center of the disk).

Yep right now I do have FH0 and FH1 in the mount list and everything is happy.

So with my experience explained above it seemed like the prep tool didnt do anything but maybe record the geometry in the first two blocks (and ignore all the bad block info I put in) although prep always succeeded. It seems like the IBM low level format got me where I wanted to be in the end (bad blocks I fed into the tool were marked, other bad blocks now format fine and the amiga is no longer trying to format the bad blocks where the prep tool seemed to ignore all the bad blocks I put in and format still chewed on them)? Odd... idk.

26 July 2021, 19:56	#7
snowpile79 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Hancock Posts: 48	Ok so the Prep tool DOES do a low level format. Interesting. OK. I did use PREP and did input all the bad blocks in which did create RES0: and populate the first two blocks with data. It also created the first DH0: boot partition (even though I have a non-booting A2090 currently I have a line on a booting A2090a which I will swap to shortly). Prep did not seem to actually do a full low level format though. It seemed to just quickly write the first two blocks immediately within 1 second and quit with no errors/success. Then after doing that, and prep creating DH0 I went and created FH0 and FH1 in the mountlist and formatted those... and then the dang card chewed on formatting every bad block I already fed into the prep command (after multiple tries I created this ticket looking for another tool). I totally understand what you are saying about having to use the controller you plan to actually use the hard disk with... but I'll say this: When I did the low level format in the PC I fed all the bad blocks into the WD bios based low level format tool. It then performed how Im used to.. It spent some time low level formatting the disk (probably 15 to 20 seconds) then finished with a successful message. I then pulled it, put it in the amiga and used the prep command again (like you said, but I didnt feed any bad blocks into it this time). It did its thing, created DH0 (without chewing on the bad blocks this time which I entered into the IBM low level format tool). Then when I created and formated FH0 and FH1 same behavior it did not chew on any bad blocks I marked with the ibm low level format. Also the other bad blocks were now functioning again (well, most... just not a bunch in the center of the disk). Yep right now I do have FH0 and FH1 in the mount list and everything is happy. So with my experience explained above it seemed like the prep tool didnt do anything but maybe record the geometry in the first two blocks (and ignore all the bad block info I put in) although prep always succeeded. It seems like the IBM low level format got me where I wanted to be in the end (bad blocks I fed into the tool were marked, other bad blocks now format fine and the amiga is no longer trying to format the bad blocks where the prep tool seemed to ignore all the bad blocks I put in and format still chewed on them)? Odd... idk.