Make sure the drive is completely backed up before proceeding. Zero Filling a SATA or ATA (IDE) drive destroys 100% of the data on the drive. Similarly, when a disc drive writes data (like a zero fill erase procedure) and encounters a problem, the drive firmware retires the problem sector and activates a replacement before giving successful write status. In this situation the actual data bytes in the sector are preserved and transferred to the new spare during a sector reallocation. Usually, sectors become difficult to read long before they become impossible to read. To scan for bad sectors that can be detected and replaced with good spare sectors when writing to the sectors.īy design, modern disc drives maintain spare sectors for reallocation purposes. To erase confidential information for privacy reasons. To change from one operating system to another and wish to remove everything from the drive. To remove a virus that cannot be removed without destroying the boot sector. The most common reasons to Zero Fill a SATA or ATA (IDE) hard drive are: This is a simple process of writing all zeros (0's) to the entire hard disk drive. The only safe method of initializing all the data on a Seagate device is the zero fill erase option in SeaTools for DOS. The low-level process first used years ago in MFM hard drives bears little resemblance to what we now call a "low-level format" for today's SATA and ATA (IDE) drives. Please note: If the SMART Status reads: Unsupported, stop and let me know.What does "low level format" a SATA or ATA (IDE) drive mean?Īctually the term "low level" is a bit of a misnomer.Also, go in the Attributes tab and if you have any entries highlighted in red or pink, take a screenshot of the GSmartControl window and attach it in your next reply.Please copy and paste these results in your next reply or take a screenshot Once the test is over, the results will be displayed at the bottom of the window.Go to the Self-Tests tab, then select Extended Self-test in the Test type drop-down list and click on Execute (this test can take a few hours to complete).Double-click on it to bring up its window (usually you'll find your drive by its size or its brand name).It will either read: Enabled, in which case you should do the following: You should see something called: SMART status.Identify your drive in the list (if recognized by the tool), and hover your mouse over it.Open the folder gsmartcontrol-1.1.3-win64 which should be located on your Desktop and double-click gsmartcontrol.exe to launch the program. Download the portable version of GSmartControl and save it on your Desktop.See this Sysnative thread by Softwaremaniac - Win 10 Freezing and DISM and SFC won't completeįull instructions by softwaremaniacFollow the instructions below to check your SMART status with GSmartControl: Get access to BIOS settings & Boot Menu: F-keys/Hotkeys by System Manufacturer (OEM)ĭownload GSmartControl from On most systems, you press and/or tap an F-key repeatedly during boot-up to bring up the BIOS menu. Here is a listing of the BIOS key sequence by system manufacturer, which will cause your system to boot, then bring you to the BIOS screen. It is very important to have the correct model number to ensure that you are provided with the correct instructions. The model number can usually be obtained from the sticker found on the case of a desktop PC or from the label on the bottom of a laptop. If you require assistance to change your BIOS settings to ensure that the USB ports are first in line during boot-up, simply post your system manufacturer's name and the EXACT model number of the system. To successfully boot from the USB stick, you MAY require a BIOS "Firing Order" change to ensure that the system looks to the USB ports first for bootable media - before looking/ defaulting to the hard drive or CD/DVD drive to boot your system. I checked at the SeaTools site and found that they offer a tool/app, filename = USBbootSetup-SeaToolsBootable.zip that you can download run the EXE inside the zip file ( SeaToolsBootable_RC_2.1.2.usbBootMaker.exe) and create a bootable USB stick for SeaTools with DOS on it.Īs with the CD/DVD, you will obviously be booting from the media device that you just created - the USB stick.
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