FDFORMAT(8) Linux Programmer s Manual FDFORMAT(8)

NAME fdformat - Low-level formats a floppy disk

SYNOPSIS fdformat [-n] device

DESCRIPTION fdformat does a low level format on a floppy disk. device is usually one of the following (for floppy devices, the major = 2, and the minor is shown for informational purposes only):

/dev/fd0d360 (minor = 4) /dev/fd0h1200 (minor = 8) /dev/fd0D360 (minor = 12) /dev/fd0H360 (minor = 12) /dev/fd0D720 (minor = 16) /dev/fd0H720 (minor = 16) /dev/fd0h360 (minor = 20) /dev/fd0h720 (minor = 24) /dev/fd0H1440 (minor = 28)

/dev/fd1d360 (minor = 5) /dev/fd1h1200 (minor = 9) /dev/fd1D360 (minor = 13) /dev/fd1H360 (minor = 13) /dev/fd1D720 (minor = 17) /dev/fd1H720 (minor = 17) /dev/fd1h360 (minor = 21) /dev/fd1h720 (minor = 25) /dev/fd1H1440 (minor = 29)

The generic floppy devices, /dev/fd0 and /dev/fd1, will fail to work with fdformat when a non-standard format is being used, or if the for- mat has not been autodetected earlier. In this case, use setfdprm(8) to load the disk parameters.

For ATAPI IDE floppy driver (also known as LS-120 drives or "Superdisk" drives) you have to use the floppy(8).

OPTIONS -n No verify. This option will disable the verification that is performed after the format.

SEE ALSO fd(4), setfdprm(8), mkfs(8), emkfs(8), floppy(8)

AUTHOR Werner Almesberger (almesber@nessie.cs.id.ethz.ch)

AVAILABILITY The fdformat command is part of the util-linux-ng package and is avail- able from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux-ng/.

Linux 0.99 1 February 1993 FDFORMAT(8)