Quote Originally Posted by TosaInu
I recall, from a years back article, that a low level format is damaging for HD performance by removing 'markers'. It was required for some sort of rescue, forgot what, but also removed 'markers' (?) on the HD which were there for normal smooth operation.
Low level format, was a must for healthy HD's in those days, but low level formats is not comparable with what the todays format is. Low level format was a phisical reconstruction of the disk surface and was applied "ONLY" to ESDI disks, in the beginning an assembler function was called from DOS to start the process, later manufacturers included the function in the CMOS for easy usage for the average user. That function was still there, in earlier 486's and some 586's, but the process call was the low level format only by name, the format used was a simply and common one; a format/u command was far more effective.