This is probably a MFM (not IDE drive), the heads drift over time and the
drive needs to have a low level format to get the tracks underneath where
the heads think they are. I'd look on the site for your controller card and
see if it has info on how to do it with your particular card. You will need
your hard drive parameters also. I have info on several of those cards, so
let me know if you need any more info.

Once you do the low-level format, you can f-disk and format as usual.

I use an older version of PC-Tools that does a LLF on the fly. It reads the
data off of each track, re-low level formats it, and rewrites the data. It
takes overnight, but it very easy.

Karl Gottshalk



>Now, now, don't laugh too loud.
>
>I was given an old 286 with a 40 mb Hard Drive. I would like to
>get the critter running well enough that my kids can use it for
>homework (basic word processing) when dad needs his computer to do
>his own work.

>However, if I change to the "windows" directory (win 3.1) and then
>try to view the directory the following errror message pops up.
>"general failure reading drive C: abort, retry, fail?"
>
>This error message pops up every time in the "WINDOWS" directory
>only. Any ideas?
>
>There is nothing I need on the hard drive right now. So wiping the
>slate clean is a feasible idea if someone can supply step by step
>instructions. I have the disks for dos 6 and win 3.1. I am just
>not sure wether they are still good. Do I need to reformat first?
>If so how do I do it? I have seen warnings about formatting a hard
>drive on this list in the past few weeks and don't want to kill
>a potentially useful computer.

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