Erasing Boot Sector

[Markoman01027]

Hello everybody,
Just been reading an Adobe Acrobat document on the IBM hard drive diagnostic utility. Is it good to erase the boot sector( I think they call it MBR) after formatting or would it be before??

-Matt

[Markoman01027]

I think once you erase the MBR with the hard drive utility, your partioning information in FDISk will be gone. I guess that's what it says in the document ..but I dunno..

-Matt

[Cricket]

Hi Markoman01027,

The MBR (Master Boot Record) is created when you run FDISK. It does contain the partitioning information for the hard drive. If you "erase" the MBR, you won't be able to access your hard drive until you run FDISK again.

Are you having problems with a IBM hard drive? (I know I've had my share of problems with them...I just replace one this past weekend).

Cricket

[Markoman01027]

Thanks for the reply, Cricket..

No I am not having any problems with my IBM hard drive..infact..I ran the IBM test on the hard drive yesterday, did a quick test, and it reported no problems...

But is it good to erase the MBR with the hard drive testing utility before you make a new partition?

-Matt

[Markoman01027]

Not having problems with my IBM hard drive..yet LOL..I wanted to stay with WD, but when I formatted it and loaded winxp..it reported an error saying the hard disk is damaged...how about Maxtor? they good Cricket?

-Matt

[Cricket]

Originally posted by Markoman01027 But is it good to erase the MBR with the hard drive testing utility before you make a new partition?

I don't think it's necessary since the MBR is recreated when you run FDISK.

Originally posted by Markoman01027 I wanted to stay with WD, but when I formatted it and loaded winxp..it reported an error saying the hard disk is damaged...how about Maxtor?

All hard drive manufacturer's will have a certain percentage of drives that will develop problems, that's just how it is. I've used IBM, Western Digital, Conner, Seagate, Maxtor and Fujitsu over the years and each brand has developed bad cluster or mechanical problems of some sort or another...except the Fujitsu. The IBM's have been the worst for me...every IBM I've used has failed. Right now I have mostly Western Digital HDD's with a few Maxtor's and the lone Fujitsu (still going strong after 5 years). 1 Western Digital has developed bad clusters. The Maxtor's seem to be pretty hardy drives, no problems so far.

Cricket

[Markoman01027]

Thanks for the reply Cricket..that sounds great..I think I am going to go Fujitsu next time..one question..what is a low level format? how is it compared to a high level format?

-Matt

[Cricket]

Originally posted by Markoman01027 Thanks for the reply Cricket..that sounds great..I think I am going to go Fujitsu next time.

Don't...the current Fujitsu's are terrible. The company is going through a class action law suit because of very high failure rates (I think it was 60% failure rates).

My Fujitsu is a 6.4GB 5400 RPM HDD that is 5 years old...made well before their current production problems.

Cricket

[Markoman01027]

ohh ok..Thanks Cricket..Will give WD another try, or possibly try something new like a Maxtor and see how that goes..but not just yet.My IBM HD is still working..I know you are probably surprised hahaha been running for like 5 months

-Matt

[Cricket]

Originally posted by Markoman01027 My IBM HD is still working..I know you are probably surprised hahaha been running for like 5 months

Here's a good one...all my IBM's went out not long after the 3 year warranty period was up (maybe they don't like the high humidity we have here in Hawaii). No more IBM's for me.

Give the Maxtor's a try, they seem to run fine.

Cricket