format
Format a hard drive or floppy disk.
format d: [options]
Warning: while format supports FAT32, running under Win98 to create FAT32 does
not work well.
Options
d:
The hard drive or floppy disk to format.
/D
Gives very detailed information, for debugging and for bug
reports.
/V:label
Assign this label to the formatted disk.
/Q
Do a quick format. This clears the FAT and root directory, but does
not erase the disk.
/U
Do an unconditional format.
/F:size
Format the disk to a specific size. This can only be used with
floppy disks. Valid values are:
160 | 160k | 160kb
Format to 160kb.
180 | 180k | 180kb
Format to 180kb.
320 | 320k | 320kb
Format to 320kb.
360 | 360k | 360kb
Format to 360kb.
720 | 720k | 720kb
Format to 720kb.
1200 | 1200k | 1200kb | 1.2 | 1.2m | 1.2mb
Format to 1.2MB.
1440 | 1440k | 1440kb | 1.44 | 1.44m | 1.44mb
Format to 1.44MB.
2880 | 2880k | 2880kb | 2.88 | 2.88m | 2.88mb
Format to 2.88MB.
/B
Reserve space to make a bootable disk. This cannot
be combined with /S.
/S
Make a system disk (copy files to make it bootable.)
/T:tracks
Specify the number of tracks on the disk.
/N:sectors
Specify the number of sectors.
/1
Format a single-sided disk.
/4
Format a 5-1/4 inch 360KB DSDD disk on a 1.2MB drive.
/8
Format a 5-1/4 inch disk with 8 SPT.
/Z Options
/Z:longhelp
Gives detailed, technical usage information.
/Z:seriously
Suppresses the confirmation request when you use format with a hard disk.
/Z:mirror
Saves the unformat "mirror data", without
formatting the disk.
/Z:unformat
Unformats the disk, if the mirror data is fresh.
Copyright © 1998 Jim Hall
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO.
See the file H2Cpying.txt for copying conditions.