dosformat Command

Purpose

Formats a DOS diskette.

Syntax

dosformat [  -V Label ] [ -D Device |  -4 ]

Description

The dosformat command formats a diskette with the DOS format.

The default device and DOS diskette drive format is /dev/fd0 for a 3.5-inch diskette. The density is usually either 1.44M-byte or 2.88M-byte, depending on the density that the drive supports. Other DOS diskette drive formats are implemented by using the -D or -4 flags.

To include a volume label, use the -V flag.

Note: The purpose of this command is to facilitate file transfer between this operating system and DOS systems. Using this command to format a diskette that needs to have the DOS system startup files on it is not recommended.

Flags

Item Description
-V Write the Label parameter to the diskette as the DOS volume label.
-DDevice Specifies the diskette drive type and size. The Device parameter can be specified as:

For a 3.5-inch, 1.44M drive:

/dev/fd0
1.44MB (default)
/dev/fd0h
1.44MB
/dev/fd0l
720KB
/dev/fd0.18
1.44MB
/dev/fd0.9
720KB

For a 3.5-inch, 2.88M drive:

/dev/fd0
2.88MB (default)
/dev/fd0h
2.88MB
/dev/fdol
720KB
/dev/fd0.36
2.88MB
/dev/fd0.18
1.44MB
/dev/fd0.9
720KB

For a 5.25-inch, 1.2M drive:

/dev/fd0
1.2MB (default)
/dev/fd0.15
1.2MB
/dev/fd0.9
360KB
Item Description
-4 Specifies the lower density for the diskette size.

Examples

  1. To format a 3.5-inch, 1.44M-byte diskette with the volume label "homework," type the following: 
    dosformat -V homework
  2. To format a 5.25-inch, 360K-byte diskette, type the following: 
    dosformat -D /dev/fd1.9
    OR 
    dosformat -D /dev/fd1 -4

Files

Item Description
/usr/bin/dosformat Contains the dosformat command.