Low level formatting a Jaz ?

[Stefano Mori <nospam [at] mori.greatxscape.net>]

My 1GB jaz (LaCie) has a 'write error' problem;
whenever I try to do a low level format on a cart the
jaz drive 'hangs' at the 70% done mark.
Engineers have told me that the fault is with the drive,
and unfortunately it's out of warranty.

I have a cart that is fresh and already formatted, so I
thought to just partition it into a single 650MB volume --
thereby not touching the last 30% (and presumably avoiding 
the bad head???)

So far this seems to work - I can store and retrieve stuff off
the volume without apparent error - and I get to make some use
of my existing drive and carts --- 
hey, 650MB/1GB is better than 0MB/1GB :P

Problem is that I would like to use the cart that was left in
an unformatted condition -- the one the Iomega tool format kept 
stopping at 70% on -- so my question is:

can a _partial_ low level format be done on a scsi jaz ?
(are there Linux tools that can do this?)
ie. just the first 670MB or so... so that I can then make a 
filesystem on just that portion later?

Or if this is impossible, what's the likely-hood that formatting
one of these carts (that's been in my faulty drive) in someone 
else's jaz drive may damage their drive???

Stefano
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