I have a Western Digital 80G and a Seagate 120G. I would like to low level format each of the drives to clear out old Windows material. The Seagate comes with an install CD, but it needs to be run from Windows XP. Are there any generic Linux software programs that I can download that would do the equivalent of a low-level format?

Thanks

In order to erase data from a hard disk you can format it. Low-level format is an entirely different matter.
Disks are low-level formatted in the factory and rarely (or never if you prefer) need low-level format again.

If you just want to "clear out old windows material" you just format the disk.
If you want to install windows xp then you will be asked to format it when the windows installation starts.
If you want to install linux, same thing. You will be asked when the installation of the distribution of your choise starts.

There is also a liveCD called UBCD which comes with all the partitioning, maintenance, or formatting software you will ever need for just about every hard drive, (i.e. western digital, seagate, maxtor etc...), it also comes with one partitioning software I have used on a regular basis for generic hard drives, and that is Ranish.

Here is the link. Give it a try.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/


peace V