At 09:09 PM 8/29/99 , Gregg Pfaff  wrote:
>Hi List Guru's
>I have a 166mhz Pentium in a Packard Hell Platinum XI
>with a Conner 1.6GB HD that
>has bad sectors it locks up on when I try to install
>new software. The bad sectors were discovered during a
>thorough
>scandisk that I did after encountering problems. During
>the scandisk it told me about the
>bad sectors and said it would mark them as bad so it
>would not try to read or write to them ever
>again! It was ok for along time but lately now that my
>drive is alittle more than half full the
>drive locks up on these sectors and then I get a "blue
>screen" that say's "can't read or write
>to drive C". I can imediately reboot and use my
>computer again, just can't install anything
>or perform a thorough scandisk anymore.
>
>Anyway, if anybody knows of a solution to this great!
>Will a program like DISK DOCTOR fix this? Otherwise i'm
>in need of
>instructions for adding an additional HD and I would
>like Instructions on replacing my HD. I
>know your thinking I should take it in to a shop but, I
>really want to learn to do it myself. I
>have a 1GB HD from an upgraded computer I could install
>as a slave and I know how to
>install it but, I Don't know how to completely
>configure it? do I fdisk it? It still has data on it
>forom the other PC. I'm stuck.

When a drive starts developing bad sectors, this is not always a sign
of a bad drive, especially drives only a few years old.  Sometimes it
is an issue with the partition and formatting on the drive.  Then it is
time to do what is commonly referred to as a "Low Level Format."
This is a misnomer of sorts, as it is really a mid-level format and
the term is a hold over from the old MFM days.   Actually, this is
re-initializing the drive or resetting the drive platter to factory
standards.

Remember a low-level format will destroy all data on the drive.  When
you are done, you will need to start from scratch by using FDISK to
partition the drive and then you will need to format it.

You will need a utility program to do this and you should be able
to download one from Conner, at:
    http://www.conner.com/support/disc/drivers/discfile.shtml
Download the "Seagate Format v4" application and run it on
this drive, (this is also for Conner drives).

                 Bob Wright
        The NOSPIN Group, Inc
http://nospin.com - http://nospin.org

         PCBUILD maintains hundreds of useful files for download
                     visit our download web page at:
                     http://nospin.com/pc/files.html