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 being checked. For example, if you have a 20MB hard disk, the first messages you see are:

Format Hard DiskScanning for flagged bad tracks...Current cylinder is 614

When the scan is complete, the program displays information about the condition of the disk. For a 20MB hard disk with no bad tracks, the display looks like this:

Scanning
finished.

 

 

Count

of

tracksflagged bad

=

0

Count

of

tracks

with other errors

=

0

Count

of

good tracks

=

2460

The program then displays a warning about the consequences of proceeding with formatting:

WARNING! ALL DATA WILL BE DESTROYED IN ALL PARTITIONS OF HARD DISK, NOT JUST IN MS-DOS PARTITION!

Do you want to start formatting (Y/N)?

If there are no tracks with other errors, and you are absolutely sure that you want to format the hard disk, press Y then Enter.

The program then asks you once more if you want to continue. You see this message and prompt:

DOUBLE CHECK THAT YOU HAVE BACKUP DISKETTE COPIES OF ALL YOUR FILES.Do you want to exit and check your file copies (Y/N)?

When you are certain no valuable data will be destroyed, press N and Enter.

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