This page describes the ViewStation's
Floppy Disk Format manual page.
FDFORMAT
NAME
fdformat - format floppy diskettes
SYNOPSIS
fdformat [ -l ] [ -n ] [ -v label ] device
DESCRIPTION
fdformat is a utility for formatting
floppy diskettes. All new blank diskettes must be formatted before they
can be used. fdformat formats and verifies each track on the diskette,
and terminates if it finds any bad sectors. All existing data on the
diskette, if any, is destroyed by formatting.
By default,
fdformat formats a high density diskette with a capacity of 1.44
megabytes. Use the -l option to format low density diskettes (720K
capacity). Note: it is not possible to put a low density format onto a
high density floppy diskette. High density diskettes can be recognized
by the high density detect hole in the lower right corner of the
diskette, opposite the write protect hole in the lower left corner.
A MS-DOS file system is installed on the diskette after the
format is done.
OPTIONS
-v
Put a MS-DOS label on
the disk after formatting it.
-l
Format a low
density (720K) diskette.
-n
Skip verifying the
floppy diskette after formatting.
NOTES
The MS-DOS file system installed by
fdformat does not have the necessary system files to make it bootable
on a PC.
FILES
/dev/fd1 /dev/fd2 etc.
BUGS
Currently bad sector mapping is not supported on floppy
diskettes. Therefore, a diskette is unusable if fdformat finds an error
(bad sector).
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