Re: Low level formatting a Jaz ?

["Alex Hudson" <nospam [at] york.ac.uk>]

Hi Stefano...

> Engineers have told me that the fault is with the drive,
> and unfortunately it's out of warranty.
>
> 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?

I've not heard of anyone doing that successfully before, usually a low-level
format is an all-or-nothing job. Have you tried fdisking the drive and
setting up a partition table that has the first 70% as sd(x)1 and the second
30% as sd(x)2? That should allow you to format the part of the drive you
wish to use using the normal tools, although I have to admit it's not
something I've heard of people doing with Jaz drives.. I believe it works
with Zip drives though. It's something to try, I guess.

> 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???

Pretty much between zero and non-existant, although it depends what damaged
your drive in the first place. If it was a dodgy cart that knackered your
drive, then yes, the likelyhood of your damaging someone elses drive is
pretty high. But if it was just wear and tear, or something like that, it
won't. If you can have a look at the media inside, that'll tell you - but
can you do that with Jazs? Never used them before myself ;) Anyway, I'd say
the probability is pretty low, but not non-existant... if that's any help!

Cheers,

Alex.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheffield Linux User's Group - http://www.sheflug.co.uk
To unsubscribe from this list send mail to
- <sheflug-request [at] vuw.ac.nz> - with the word 
 "unsubscribe" in the body of the message. 

  GNU the choice of a complete generation.