dosformat --
format a DOS diskette or hard drive partition
Synopsis
dosformat [-fqv2] special [size]
Description
dosformat
creates a DOS 5.0 formatted diskette.
It can also be used to format a hard disk partition.
The drive must be specified using a UNIX special filename.
When formatting a hard drive partition,
size must also be specified.
Command options
-f
The -f option suppresses the interactive feature.
-q
The
-q (quiet) option is used to suppress information normally
displayed during dosformat, but it does not
suppress the interactive feature.
-v
The -v option prompts
you for a volume label after a diskette has been
formatted.
The maximum size of the volume label is 11
characters.
-2
The -2 option is supplied for compatibility and has no effect.
dosformat.
special
specifies the device name
size
specifies the size of the filesystem in number of
512-byte sectors.
size is not needed for floppy disks but is necessary
for hard disks.
Usage
For example, if your system has two floppy drives, the first a
3.5" and the second a 5.25", then the following
special filenames can be used to format low and high density
floppies:
DOS Format
UNIX special file names for diskettes
1.4 MB
/dev/rdsk/f03ht
720 KB
/dev/rdsk/f03dt
1.2 MB
/dev/rdsk/f15ht
360 KB
/dev/rdsk/f15d9t
In the above special filenames, f0 refers to the
first floppy drive,
and f1 refers to the second floppy drive.
See
fd(7)
for a complete explanation of floppy disk drive names.
For your convenience, the user-configurable default file
/etc/default/msdos can contain definitions of
DOS drive names to be used in place of the
special file names.
As an example, it may contain the following lines:
A=/dev/rdsk/f0t
C=/dev/rdsk/0s5
D=/dev/rdsk/1s5
In this example, the drive letter A may be used in
place of special file name /dev/rdsk/f0t
when referencing DOS files.
The drive letters C and D refer to the DOS
partition on the first or second hard disk, respectively.
dosformat operates on the diskettes that have the
following characteristics:
5-1/4 inch DOS diskettes
3-1/2 inch DOS diskettes
8, 9, 15, or 18 sectors per track
40 tracks per side
1 or 2 sides
DOS versions 1.0, 2.0, or 3.0
The following special file names can be used to format a hard disk
partition for DOS:
UNIX special file names for hard disk partitions
/dev/rdsk/c0b0t0d0p0
/dev/rdsk/c0b0t0d0p1
/dev/rdsk/c0b0t0d0p2
/dev/rdsk/c0b0t0d0p3
/dev/rdsk/c0b0t0d0p4
In the above special filenames, p0 corresponds to the
whole disk, p1 to the first partition, and so on.
and f1 refers to the second floppy drive.
See
disk(7)
for a complete explanation of disk device special file names.