3-18Adaptec Ultra320 SCSI Cards User’s GuideVerifying or Formatting a DiskSCSISelect includes a utility that enables you to format and verifydisks: Verify Disk Media—Allows you to scan the media of a harddisk drive for defects. If the utility finds bad blocks on themedia, it prompts you to reassign them so they are no longerused. Format Disk—Allows you to perform a low-level format on ahard disk drive. A disk must be low-level formatted before youcan use the operating system’s partitioning and high-levelformatting utilities. Most SCSI disk devices are preformatted at thefactory and do not need to be formatted again. If a drive is notpreformatted, you can use SCSISelect to perform a low-levelformat on the drive.This operation is compatible with mostSCSI disk drives.Caution: A low-level format destroys all data on the drive.Be sure to back up your data before performing thisoperation. You cannot abort a low-level format once it isstarted.Caution: When a low-level format command is sent to thehard disk drive, the drive will start its format. The SCSIcard will wait for the format to complete and may appearto be hung. You must not interfere or try to stop the low-level format as this can destroy the hard disk drive andrender it unusable. A low-level format can take fromseveral minutes to several hours to complete, dependingon the size and speed of the hard disk drive. When thedrive has completed its low-level format, it will send acommand to the SCSI card and allow the user to exit theutility.!!
