No. Please don't do this. These utilities are for extreme problems. You should just be able to do a fresh install by deleting the existing partitions during the install phase. If a low-level format isn't done correctly ..it can destroy the drive. This I can assure you..a few years ago I broke a Seagate with their utility by accident. oops. :) Just break the partitions during install..make new ones and let YaST2 format them. It should work just fine. :) * Cleary_Mike@emc.com (Cleary_Mike@emc.com) [020425 13:40]: ::I'm getting ready to do a clean install of 8.0 and was wondering :: ::if there are any benefits/reasons for running a low-level format :: ::utility? There is such a utility available from Maxtor, but I don't :: ::know what I might gain from using it. When / for what reasons :: ::would you use such a utility? I have not followed the previous :: ::thread so I hope I'm not repeating anything... -=Ben --=====-----=====-- mailto:ben@whack.org --=====-- If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little. -GC --=====-----=====--