Ian,

Try the data lifeguard tools at the link below and it will format your 98 or
ME drive much faster.  Use the instructions below to make your boot disk.

Instruction:
Please download the file to a directory and execute it. You will be prompted
to insert a blank floppy diskette, and the file will create a bootable
EZ-Install diskette.
New features:
* Certified to work on all current WD drives (model numbers starting with
"WD")
* Friendly user interface and easy to use
* GUI Interface Drive Installation Software
* Compatible with Promise card and driver solution for 137 GB barrier
* Drive to Drive copy capability with new NTFS support
* Fast Format Installation for 98 and ME
http://support.wdc.com/download/dlg/dlginstall_10_0.exe



Phil Benson
Embroidery Nation
http://www.embroiderynation.com/

-----Original Message-----
From: PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Ian
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2003 5:17 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PCBUILD] Desperately slow format

A used but fairly new 40Gb Western Digital drive is taking around 30-35 secs
to format EACH PERCENT, in other words, almost 55 minutes to format the
whole drive.

The system is about 18 months old, with a 1.4 Ghz Athlon, Shuttle AK31 mobo
and 256 Mb DDR ram.

The format is being done in DOS using format.com from a W98SE system.  I
used fdisk to set the drive up with 2x 20Mb partitions.  C partition was
formatted with the /s switch, though I don't think that's a factor - each
partition is equally slow to format.

The system came to me with troubles - I'm wondering if this slow formatting
is indicative of anything.

Ideas would be appreciated.

Ian Porter
Computer Guys Inc.
Arrowtown
New Zealand
[log in to unmask]

         PCBUILD maintains hundreds of useful files for download
                     visit our download web page at:
                  http://freepctech.com/downloads.shtml

         PCBUILD maintains hundreds of useful files for download
                     visit our download web page at:
                  http://freepctech.com/downloads.shtml