Many hard disk drives are supplied with a list of bad tracks, but without the bad tracks flagged on the disk. Other hard disks are supplied with the bad tracks already flagged. In all cases, run the Non-destructive surface analysis before formatting the disk; this routine finds all bad tracks that are not flagged.

If the analysis shows that all the tracks listed as bad are already flagged, you can then use the Conditional format (Normal) option to format the disk. If the analysis matches the list of bad tracks, but they are not flagged, run the Destructive surface analysis (to flag the tracks) before formatting the disk. If the list provided by the drive manufacturer contains bad tracks that the analysis does not detect, you can use the Unconditional format option to flag those tracks manually.

When you select an option from the HARD DISK FORMAT MENU, the program determines the number of hard disk drives installed in your computer. If you have more than one drive, then each time you select a test you see this prompt:

Enter drive letter (C/D)?

Press C or D, and then press Enter. If you have only one hard disk drive, the option you select starts immediately.

Conditional Format (Normal)

Use this option to format the hard disk. All flagged tracks are marked so that they are never used.

To start the Conditional format, press 1 and then Enter. The program starts to scan the disk to find all tracks flagged as bad, starting from the innermost cylinder of the disk. During the scan, you see the number of the cylinder the program is currently checking. For example, if you have a hard disk, the first messages you see are:

Format Hard DiskScanning for flagged bad tracks...

Current cylinder is nnn

Physically Formatting a Hard Disk D-3