FDFORMAT(8)

NAME
fdformat - low-level format a floppy disk

SYNOPSIS
fdformat [options] 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 format 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
    Skip the verification that is normally performed after the formatting.

-V, --version
    Output version information and exit.

-h, --help
    Display help and exit.

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 package and is available from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/.