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

-f, --from N
    Start at the track N (default is 0).

-t, --to N
    Stop at the track N.

-r, --repair N
    Try to repair tracks failed during the verification (max N retries).

-n, --no-verify
    Skip the verification that is normally performed after the formatting.

-h, --help
    Display help text and exit.

-V, --version
    Display version and exit.

NOTES

This utility does not handle USB floppy disk drives. Use ufiformat(8) instead.

AUTHORS

SEE ALSO

fd(4), emkfs(8), floppy(8), mkfs(8), setfdprm(8), ufiformat(8)

REPORTING BUGS

For bug reports, use the

AVAILABILITY

The fdformat command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from