qa.hlp (Table of Contents; Topic list)
Important Notice
The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.
Int 13H Function 1AH
   Summary  Notes  Back
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
    This operation is sometimes called a "low level format" and prepares
    the disk for physical read/write operations at the sector level. The
    drive must be subsequently partitioned with the FDISK command and then
    given a "high level format" with the FORMAT command to install a file
    system.
 
    If bit 4 of register CL is set, Int 15H is called with AH=0FH and
    AL=phase code after each cylinder is formatted or analyzed. The phase
    code is defined as:
      0=reserved
      1=surface analysis
      2=formatting
    See also Int 15H Function 0FH.
 
    If bit 2 of register CL is set, the drive's secondary defect map is
    updated to reflect errors found during surface analysis. If both bit 2
    and bit 1 are set, the secondary defect map is replaced.
 
    For an extended surface analysis, the disk should first be formatted by
    calling this function with bit 3 cleared and then analyzed by calling
    this function with bit 3 set.
                                    -♦-