OK, had a laptop harddisk that failed on me today... "error #4". No formatting possible, PM8.0 didn't work... all seemed useless. After a half an hour i found this nifty little program that enables you to make a LLF - Low Level Format - (writes 0 all over the HD) of your harddisk. Theoretically it should eliminate all errors on the harddisk (appart fram physical ones) and leave you with a factory new HD...

here it is:
powermax.exe
i put it in the warez as it is freeware