FDFORMAT(1)

NAME
fdformat - format floppy disks

SYNOPSIS
fdformat [-q] [-y] [-v | -n] [-f capacity] [-c cyls] [-s secs] [-h heads]
fdformat [-r rate] [-g gap3len] [-i intleave] [-S secshft] [-F fillbyte] [-t steps_per_track] device_name

DESCRIPTION
The fdformat utility formats a floppy disk at device device_name. Device_name may be given either with a full path name of a device node for a floppy disk drive (e.g. /dev/fd0), or a default name in an abbreviated form (e.g. fd0). In the latter case, the name is constructed by prepending /dev/ and appending a .capacity to the device_name. Note that any geometry constraints of the device node (minor device number) are meaningless, since they're overridden by fdformat.

The options are as follows:

-q  Suppress any normal output from the command, and don't ask the user for a confirmation whether to format the floppy disk at device_name.

-y  Suppress confirmation request by automagically responding "yes", but still report format status.

-f capacity
    The normal way to specify the desired formatting parameters. Capacity is the number of kilobytes to format. Valid choices are 360, 720, 800, 820, 1200, 1440, 1480 or 1720.

-n  Don't verify floppy after formatting.

-v  Don't format, verify only.

-c cyls
    Number of cylinders: 40 or 80.

-s secs
    Number of sectors per track: 9, 10, 15 or 18.

-h heads
    Number of floppy heads: 1 or 2.

-r rate
    Data rate: 250, 300 or 500 kbps.

-g gap3len
    Gap length.

-i intleave
    Interleave factor.

-S secshft
    Sector size: 0=128, 1=256, 2=512 bytes.

-F fillbyte
    Fill byte.

-t steps_per_track
    Number of steps per track. An alternate method to specify the geometry data to write to the floppy disk.

If the -q flag has not been specified, the user is asked for a confirmation of the intended formatting process. In order to continue, an answer of “y” must be given.

Note that fdformat does only perform low-level formatting. In case you wish to create a file system on the medium, see the commands newfs(8) for an ufs file system, or newfs_msdos(8) for an MS-DOS (FAT) file system.

EXIT STATUS
An exit status of 0 is returned upon successful operation. Exit status 1 is returned on any errors during floppy formatting, and an exit status of 2 reflects invalid arguments given to the program (along with an appropriate information written to diagnostic output).

DIAGNOSTICS
Unless -q has been specified, a single letter is printed to standard output to inform the user about the progress of work. First, an ‘F’ is printed when the track(s) is being formatted, then a ‘V’ while it's being verified, and if an error has been detected, it will finally change to ‘E’. Detailed status information (cylinder, head and sector number, and the exact cause of the error) will then be printed for up to 10 errors.

SEE ALSO
fdc(4), newfs(8), newfs_msdos(8)

HISTORY
The fdformat utility has been developed for 386BSD 0.1 and upgraded to the new fdc(4) floppy disk driver. It later became part of the FreeBSD 1.1 system.

AUTHORS
-nosplit The program has been contributed by Jörg Wunsch, Dresden, with changes by Serge Vakulenko and Andrey A. Chernov, Moscow.