How do I make a drive like new?

[flamingbanana]

I do not mean formatting it, I mean getting it to the same state it is in when you first purchase it, with no filesystem. I think this would be the way to start, I am replacing the drive on my xbox with an 80gb seagate.

[Mr. C]

Use the tools from the drive's manufacturer to write 0's to it, perhaps?

[flamingbanana]

what would these tools be for a seagate?

[Mr. C]

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/faq/ata_llfmt_what.html

http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html

[metallicat666]

deleting the partition then formatting then deleting that partition might work

[jshadez]

i would boot up using windows 95/98 floppy disk and use fdisk to remove the paritions. Alternatively, if your biso supports it, perform a low level disk format ?

Be careful that you do these actions on the correct hard disk !

[Yawgm0th]

Fdisk would be the easiest, but Maxblast 3 from Maxtor has some nice formatting options. There are also programs to 0-out the drive or write random binary to it, if you need to make it harder to access the old data. If not, use Fdisk or Maxblast to delete the partitions. You can just copy Fdisk onto a boot floppy, or grab Maxblast from Maxtor's site if you can't get Fdisk.

[wayout44]

So have you tried using Maxblast on a Seagate drive?

[Yawgm0th]

Wasn't paying attention... : omg:

I haven't tried it, but I would assume it doesn't work. Just use Seagate's utility or Fdisk instead.

[joedemagio]

Re: How do I make a drive like new?

This is why I LOVE the Adaptec SCSI BIOS that came with my computer. You just press CTRL-A at startup and TADA! you can do anything you want with any SCSI equipment you have installed.