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Slightly OT: Anyone got a PXE bootable HDD low level format tool?

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tin at new-life

Sep 2, 2007, 4:35 PM

Post #1 of 8 (4244 views)
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Slightly OT: Anyone got a PXE bootable HDD low level format tool?

Slightly off topic, but does anyone have a utility for low level
formating Maxtor ATA hard disks that can be booted from PXELinux (either
as some kind of binary or as a floppy image)?

I just went to get the official tools, but they only have a floppy
creator (which won't help me in Linux, or without a floppy drive) and a
CD ISO. And it seems 99% of 3rd party software is unhelpfully the same
(or is a Windows program).

TB

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tin at crdc

Sep 2, 2007, 4:32 PM

Post #2 of 8 (4102 views)
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Slightly OT: Anyone got a PXE bootable HDD low level format tool? [In reply to]

hpa at zytor

Sep 3, 2007, 12:39 AM

Post #3 of 8 (4117 views)
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Re: Slightly OT: Anyone got a PXE bootable HDD low level format tool? [In reply to]

Peter.Leenders at computacenter

Sep 3, 2007, 1:09 AM

Post #4 of 8 (4117 views)
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Re: Slightly OT: Anyone got a PXE bootable HDD low level format tool? [In reply to]

Hello Tim,

normaly you can use DOS-Bootfloppies with pxelinux and memdisk.
There some points that that may inhibit this:

* Using SATA drives in native mode with DOS (use compatible mode).
* Using a the HD on a raid-controller unter DOS.
* Using DOS floppies from Windows ME or XP without the "raw" or
"bigraw" option in pxelinux.
* If you use MS-DOS with himem, please use the /testmem:off switch.
* A buggy Bios, e.g.:
* Some BIOS will not emulate a floppy on pxe, if not a floppy is
physicaly present at the pc.
* Some Bios with onboard Marvell Yukon 2 chip will hang if you start
pxemenu (menu.c32), but it starts pxelinux and memdisk if this is
hardcoded in the config file.

With WinImage you can make a image of your bootdisk that could be
started via pxe. Just start WinImage, put the floppy inside the drive
an choose 'read disk'. With "save as..." you can save the image of the
floppy on your PXE server.

Put something like this, in your config file to start the bootdisk:

LABEL lowlevel
MENU LABEL Lowlevel Format Utility
KERNEL /...tftp path to memdisk.../memdisk
APPEND initrd=/...tftp path to bootimage.../bootimage.imz

If you don't need lowlevel formating, but you only want to be shure
everything is erased from your harddisk DBAN may be a alternative for
you. Look for DBAN at http://dban.sourceforge.net/

For implementing DBAN and other system utilities from pxe look at:
http://www.sysresccd.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1157
(This will make a big pxe boot image on linux system)

Peter Leenders

Tim Bates
<tin [at] new-life
.au> To
Sent by: For discussion of SYSLINUX and
syslinux-bounces@ tftp-hpa <syslinux [at] zytor>
zytor.com cc

Subject
03.09.2007 01:35 [syslinux] Slightly OT: Anyone got
a PXE bootable HDD low level
format tool?
Please respond to
For discussion of
SYSLINUX and
tftp-hpa
<syslinux [at] zytor
om>

Slightly off topic, but does anyone have a utility for low level
formating Maxtor ATA hard disks that can be booted from PXELinux (either
as some kind of binary or as a floppy image)?

I just went to get the official tools, but they only have a floppy
creator (which won't help me in Linux, or without a floppy drive) and a
CD ISO. And it seems 99% of 3rd party software is unhelpfully the same
(or is a Windows program).

TB

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are not the intended recipient please delete it and notify the sender.
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rbitter at ncsnl

Sep 7, 2007, 12:27 AM

Post #5 of 8 (4048 views)
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Re: Slightly OT: Anyone got a PXE bootable HDD low levelformat tool? [In reply to]

Hi Tim,

low-level format is an 'old school' tool.
It is not necessary for modern harddisks anymore and can even damage
your modern disks.
I would stick with a normal bootdisk, using fdisk, gdisk, (linux) disk druid,
whatever.

best regards,
Rijk

-----Original Message-----
From: syslinux-bounces [at] zytor [mailto:syslinux-bounces [at] zytor]On
Behalf Of Tim Bates
Sent: Monday, September 03, 2007 1:33 AM
To: For discussion of SYSLINUX and tftp-hpa
Subject: [syslinux] Slightly OT: Anyone got a PXE bootable HDD low
levelformat tool?

Slightly off topic, but does anyone have a utility for low level
formating Maxtor ATA hard disks that can be booted from PXELinux (either
as some kind of binary or as a floppy image)?

I just went to get the official tools, but they only have a floppy
creator (which won't help me in Linux, or without a floppy drive) and a
CD ISO. And it seems 99% of 3rd party software is unhelpfully the same
(or is a Windows program).

TB

**********************************************************************
This message is intended for the addressee named and may contain
privileged information or confidential information or both. If you
are not the intended recipient please delete it and notify the sender.
**********************************************************************

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andrew at shopcusa

Sep 14, 2007, 1:40 PM

Post #6 of 8 (4040 views)
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Re: Slightly OT: Anyone got a PXE bootable HDD low level format tool? [In reply to]

Tim Bates wrote:
> Slightly off topic, but does anyone have a utility for low level
> formating Maxtor ATA hard disks that can be booted from PXELinux (either
> as some kind of binary or as a floppy image)?
>
> I just went to get the official tools, but they only have a floppy
> creator (which won't help me in Linux, or without a floppy drive) and a
> CD ISO. And it seems 99% of 3rd party software is unhelpfully the same
> (or is a Windows program).
>
>
> TB
>
www.micro2000.com - Microscope. I forget what the commitment is, I want
to say $99 / every other major version. (not forced to upgrade)

Back in the day, they were most vendors source for Low Level Format. The
format seems to be flawless across any drive we have tried it on. I wish
I could say the same about the rest of the program. I currently have
10/11/12/2005 on my pxe/isolinux setups, as the latest version doesn't
always support older hardware (Locks up during system detection).

Quote from their site: "*Low Level Format* - Performs or initiates a
low-level format on all drive types (MFM, RLL, ESDI, SCSI, SATA, and all
IDE drives) even if the BIOS LBA functions are enabled. This includes
factory-type initialization of all IDE & EIDE drives as well as access
to true factory-style format routines."

Hope it helps..
-Andrew

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hpa at zytor

Sep 14, 2007, 2:07 PM

Post #7 of 8 (4050 views)
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Re: Slightly OT: Anyone got a PXE bootable HDD low level format tool? [In reply to]

Andrew Stuart wrote:
> Tim Bates wrote:
>> Slightly off topic, but does anyone have a utility for low level
>> formating Maxtor ATA hard disks that can be booted from PXELinux (either
>> as some kind of binary or as a floppy image)?
>>
>> I just went to get the official tools, but they only have a floppy
>> creator (which won't help me in Linux, or without a floppy drive) and a
>> CD ISO. And it seems 99% of 3rd party software is unhelpfully the same
>> (or is a Windows program).

Floppy creators are a pain in the arse. You sometimes can run the
floppy creator in a VM, and then run the disk image under MEMDISK.

CD ISOs are better, at least with a CD-ROM you can run them, but they
generally aren't netbootable.

-hpa

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wferi at niif

Sep 14, 2007, 11:40 PM

Post #8 of 8 (4049 views)
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Re: Slightly OT: Anyone got a PXE bootable HDD low level format tool? [In reply to]

"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa [at] zytor> writes:

> Andrew Stuart wrote:
>> Tim Bates wrote:
>>
>>> I just went to get the official tools, but they only have a floppy
>>> creator (which won't help me in Linux, or without a floppy drive) and a
>>> CD ISO. And it seems 99% of 3rd party software is unhelpfully the same
>>> (or is a Windows program).
>
> Floppy creators are a pain in the arse. You sometimes can run the
> floppy creator in a VM, and then run the disk image under MEMDISK.

Exactly. I wonder why vendors prefer to hack up ad hoc "Insert disk -
press button" proggies instead of distributing the (compressed) image
files themselves or binaries which run under FreeDOS. Or even -- why
not? -- under the SYSLINUX com32 API. Which even has a reboot call! :)

> CD ISOs are better, at least with a CD-ROM you can run them, but they
> generally aren't netbootable.

At least the bootable CD drives really should have a common API for
memdisk to hook into, if the BIOS can access them. Isn't this the
case?
--
Cheers,
Feri.

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