dosformat(1)


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

 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:

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

 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.

Files

/etc/default/msdos Default information
/dev/rdsk/f0t Floppy disk devices

 /etc/default/msdos   Default information
 /dev/rdsk/f0t        Floppy disk devices

References

directory(3C) disk(7) fd(7)

See your DOS Documentation.


© 2004 The SCO Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
UnixWare 7 Release 7.1.4 - 25 April 2004