WDDIAG.EXE is the best program to use when doing low-level formatting of your Western Digital AT-IDE hard drive. It should be used with all Western Digital IDE hard drives, except the following: AC140, AC160, AC280, AC2120, AC2170, and AC2200. (For these drives, use WDAT_IDE.EXE, covered later in this section).

Download WD_DIAG3.EXE (or current version number) to a bootable, blank floppy disk. (If you need instructions on creating a bootable floppy disk, see the article on Re-installing Win95). After downloading, reboot your computer with the bootable disk in drive A. From the A:> prompt, type   WD_DIAG   and press Enter to extract WDDIAG.EXE and WDDIAG.TXT to the floppy disk. You should review the WDDIAG.TXT before using the program.

Note to Windows  users: Do not use WDDIAG.EXE while Windows is active. Insert the bootable floppy diskette with WDDIAG.EXE you created above in drive A, then select Shut Down from the Start Menu. Then select Restart the computer.

When the computer is rebooted to the A:> prompt, type   WDDIAG   and press Enter. The WDDIAG main menu displays.

1. Select Drive and View Structure: Use this to choose the drive you wish to check.
2. Test Drive: This is a non-destructive test of your hard drive. After completing the test, one of the following messages will be displayed.
   1. No errors detected for this drive. The hard drive is defect free. If you encounter this message, the problem may be related to other components such as the BIOS, corrupt system files, or a virus.
   2. Non-WD Drive Detected. Do not use this program with non-WD drives.
   3. Contact WD Tech Support. The hard drive is damaged and cannot be restored to a defect-free status. Write down the Final Code number, and call Western Digital Technical Support to verify warranty status.
   4. Restore the Hard Drive to a Defect-Free Status. The hard drive has errors that can be repaired using the Repair Drive Option.
3. Repair Drive: Use this option to attempt to return the hard drive to a defect-free status. Be sure to back up your hard drive if possible before performing this operation. If a defective sector is found, WDDIAG.EXE will move the sector with no data lost. If the program has to move an entire track, all data on that track will be lost.
4. Writing Zeros to the Hard Drive: If you need to completely remove a corrupted operating system, or have a stubborn virus to remove, you can use this option after using "repair drive" to completely erase the entire hard drive. This includes the MBR (master boot record), all partition tables, and all data. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Keep in mind that writing all zeros to the hard drive will return it to factory condition, meaning that you will have to partition the drive, do a high-level format and re-install the operating system, ALL drivers, and your programs. Time consuming, but a good way to be assured you have a virus-free system. Before installing any programs, be sure to check any floppy diskettes, ZIP disks or any other media including CD-ROM disks! (Yes! Although you cannot give a CD-ROM disk a virus, CD-ROM disks can have a virus if they were made under improper conditions! I have seen this, especially with a CD-R a friend made for you).

This utility should only be used for low-level formatting the following Western Digital hard drives: AC140, AC160, AC280, AC2120, AC2170, and AC2200.
The current release of this product also shows that it can be used for the AC2420, AC1220, AL2120, AL2170, AC2540, AC1270, AL2200, AL1100, AC2700 and AC31000. However, I would recommend using WDDIAG.EXE (see above) for these additionally listed drives.

WDAT_IDE.EXE scans the media and remaps any grown defects on the above listed Western Digital hard drives. It also provides performance data such as seek times and data access times. The utility has many command line options as well as a menu interface. Read the accompanying WDAT_IDE.TXT for information on the command line options.

Download WDATIDE.EXE to a bootable, blank floppy disk. (If you need instructions on creating a bootable floppy disk, see the article on Re-installing Win95). After downloading, reboot your computer with the bootable disk in drive A. From the A:> prompt, type   WDATIDE   and press Enter to extract WDAT_IDE.EXE and WDAT_IDE.TXT to the floppy disk. You should review the WDAT_IDE.TXT before using the program.

    0 - Quick Surface Scans: Reads sequentially, one track at a time. No writes are issued. If a defect is found performs appropriate defect management. Will save user data when conditions permit.

    1 - Comprehensive Analysis: Prompts user that data will be lost. Read only scan of surface area as above, then writes/reads the entire surface sequentially, one track at a time. Each track is written with 9 data patterns, and 10 reads are issued after each write. Performs appropriate defect management, and will destroy all user data.

    2 - Performance Data: Data collected will be displayed based on drive selected. Data includes track to track seek, average random seek, full stroke seek, all shown in milliseconds. Also does a data transfer test, results are block size, data shown in kilobytes/second.

    3 - Select Drive: Choices are 0, 1, or ESCAPE to exit. This option may give information on drives other than Western Digital, although this entire utility should only be used with the above listed drives.

Defect Management Details: If an error is detected while reading a track, the following steps occur.

1. If a "Bad Block" error is detected, then the sector is re-formatted as no longer bad.
2. If an error occurs during any read, the relocation algorithm is executed, and re-verification of the track is repeated.

While you are downloading programs from Western Digital, you might want to download the current version of EZ Drive listed on their site. It will greatly ease the problems of setting up a blank hard drive, and ensure that your re-formatted Western Digital hard drive is properly installed for your computer system. Also listed are many fine utilities for Western Digital SCSI hard drives, as well as a good formatting utility for older Western Digital AT type drives.

If you are using Ontrack's Disk Manager to format your Western Digital hard drive, check out the section on Ontrack Disk Manager at the Western Digital site.

The following utilities are now available for quick download from our site, just click on the link and save to your local directory: (right-click on the wddiag.pdf and "save link as")

wddiag3.exe

wddiag.pdf

wdat_ide.exe