Comments:	Authenticated sender is <alaric+abwillms AT sdps DOT demon DOT co DOT uk>
From:	"Alaric B. Williams" <alaric AT abwillms DOT demon DOT co DOT uk>
To:	bd733 AT rgfn DOT epcc DOT Edu
Date:	Thu, 29 May 1997 01:32:45 +0000
MIME-Version:	1.0
Subject:	Re: Norte versus DEFRAG
Reply-to:	alaric AT abwillms DOT demon DOT co DOT uk
CC:	opendos AT delorie DOT com
In-reply-to:	<9705281425.AA15643@rgfn.epcc.Edu>
Message-ID:	<864865722.108410.0@abwillms.demon.co.uk>

> This is besides the fact that Calibrate is not equal with SpeeDisk or 
> Defrag; Calibrate performs a totally different feature. (what feature? I 
> was never sure. The low-level format message that comes up at the 
> beginning always scared me off. :)

What it does is read each sector off the disk, perform a low level
deep format of that sector, and then write the sector back. This
basically refreshes the magnetic domains on the disk - I guess they
can fade with time - and rewrites the sector control data if it
gets lost - so it sort of cleans the physical disk up. Some
"fatal" disk errors can be cleared this way.

ABW
--
Alaric B. Williams (alaric AT abwillms DOT demon DOT co DOT uk)

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