Killerbeesateme,

Good recommendation about the mfg's sites and tools, however the low level format part.....

Originally posted here by killerbeesateme
...you can low level format it...
High-Level Formatting: This is the "format" or meaning that flows off the tongues of most. It creates the logical structures on the HDD and makes the disk ready to place the OS near the first sector. Completed after creating volumes (partitioning) on the HDD.

Low-Level Formatting: Creates the actual physical structures on the HDD. Done only once at the manufacturer because of the complex nature of the structures on the modern drives. The older drives had the same number of sectors on the outer tracks as they did on the inner tracks. With the advance in technology we now have more sectors on the outer tracks than the inner ones. Google "Zoned Bit Recording" for an explanation. I would question any utility that claims it can complete a low-level format of a HDD while it's on your computer. The drive controllers will laugh at the futile effort because they are designed not to allow it. Additionally, if it could be done, it would erase the "servos" on the tracks and the poor HDD Head would take a vacation because it wouldn't know where to go to find the tracks. It may well be just a remapper.

There are some utilities that claim they can repair/regenerate the bad sector without damaging the logical structures. One I know of has a Free Trial (will assist with the first bad sector). Additionally it claims to be able to detect the different type of sector faults as well.

HDD Regenerator 1.42