Max Blast software and your Hard Drive...

[JoeWells]

I was reading a little debate at a racing sim forum about the pros and cons of using Max Blast type software to partion and format your hard drive and was wondering what the experts here thought.

I do believe I used the Max Blast software when I setup my drives in my system and since then have had no problems what-so-ever. But one guy on the other forum was saying that using that software is not recommended. Why is that? Does it hurt performance or something? And if you used it and wanted to kind of start over, will using Fdisk and wiping out the partition and setting up a new partition get rid of anything that the Max Blast software did to the drive?

Thanks for the knowledge,

Joe Wells

 

[Yoshi]

I would not recommend using software like MaxBlast or EZDrive (dist with WD drives). I'm not sure if it slows down performance but unless you have an old system that will not recognize drives above 2GB it seems pointless.

On a newer system just use fdisk or Win2K and set up your own partitions to sizes that meet your needs.

 

[ArkAoss]

yeah i think fdisk will get rid of it, but alot of people dont use the max blast because it makes a bios thingy partition so old systems can load all of a large drive cause alot have limits likle 2 gb or 8gb or 64 gb, so to handle that it takes up a little of the space , but then 3rd party partitioners like partition magic, cant work with the drive, if you've got alot of new equipment you can go without the maxblast, but if you've got older stuff, or don't know what your doing you should use max blast

 

[JoeWells]

Hey guys, thanks for the info. I have all new stuff so I guess I didn't really need to use the MaxBlast software, but it was so simple to use that I figured what the heck. Didn't know it could cause problems. But I have no problem using fdisk to setup a drive so the next time I have to, I'll go that route instead.

I'm still wondering though whether there is any kind of performance issues with the MaxBlast software.

Thanks again,

Joe Wells

 

[LarryJoe]

I believe the MaxBlast software is just a dos interface for fdisk and format. Definitely stay away from ezdrive.

 

[DaddyG]

Maxblast is NOT just a DSD interface. MAXblast, EX-Drive et al, actually add code to the Master Boot Record to add INT13 extensions to a system which does not provide them in the BIOS. If you are not aware what the int13 extensions do, let me explain. In the original older BIOS, 24bits were used to address the cylinder, head and sector of the drive. If you do the math, 2 to the 24th, times 512 bytes for each sector, comes to 8gig. Int13 extensions added 4 more bits to the addressing scheme and took the limit to 128gig. Note that these are bibary gigs not decimal gigs used by HDD manufactures. These int13 extensions that are added by way of the mbr can sometimes be mistaken for a virus, as the mbr is non standard. They can have compatability issues with IDE drivers and if you have to boot from a floppy, the extensions must be on the floppy boot disk as well.

 

[LarryJoe]

I wasn't talking about the EZ Drive part of the app, just the partitioning (fdisk) and preparation (format).

 

[DuneMaster]

I constantly use MaxBlast for copying hard drive to hard drive and never had a problem. Done is sooo many times.

 

[Workin']

Don't those programs only add MBR code if you need it, and ignore it if you don't?

 

[MiniMe69]

Here is the low down on the max blast software. You boot up with it and it goes to a GUI interface. Within this interface you can set up new partitions and it formats your new drive...If your bios doesn't support recognize the size of your hard drive then it will add the EZ-Bios thingy, else it doesn't. This software makes it easier for inexperienced people to setup a hard drive. It evens gives you the option to copied a partition from the advanced options. So unless you installed the EZ-Bios I wouldn't worry about using this software on your hard drives. If you wanted to get rid of this EZ-Bios, goto the advanced options and unload it from the hard drive. Fdisk and format again and away you go...