Format (command)
Command-line utility that carries out disk formatting
In computing, format is a command-line utility that carries out disk formatting. It is a component of various operating systems, including 86-DOS, MS-DOS, IBM PC DOS and OS/2, Microsoft Windows and ReactOS.
01Overview
The command performs the following actions by default on a floppy disk, hard disk drive, solid state (USB), or other magnetic medium (it will not perform these actions on optical media):
- clearing the FAT entries by changing them to 0x00
- clearing the FAT root directory by changing any values found to 0x00
- checking each cluster to see if it is good or bad and marking it as good or bad in the FAT
Any storage device must have its medium structured to be useful. This process is referred to as "creating a filesystem" in Unix, Linux, or BSD. Under these systems different commands are used. The commands can create many kinds of file systems, including those used by DOS, Windows, and OS/2.
02Implementations
The command is also available in Intel ISIS-II, iRMX 86, MetaComCo TRIPOS, AmigaDOS, Zilog Z80-RIO, Microware OS-9, DR FlexOS, TSL PC-MOS, SpartaDOS X, Datalight ROM-DOS, IBM/Toshiba 4690 OS, PTS-DOS, SISNE plus, and in the DEC RT-11 operating system.
Microsoft DOS and Windows
On MS-DOS, the command is available in versions 1 and later.
Optionally (by adding the /S, for "system" switch), format can also install a Volume Boot Record. With this option, Format writes bootstrap code to the first sector of the volume (and possibly elsewhere as well). Format always writes a BIOS Parameter Block to the first sector, with or without the /S option.
Another option (/Q) allows for what Microsoft calls "Quick Format". With this option the command will not perform steps 2 and 3 above. Format /Q does not alter data previously written to the media.
Typing "format" with no parameters in MS-DOS 3.2 or earlier would automatically, without prompting the user, format the current drive; however in MS-DOS 3.3 and later it would simply produce the error: "required parameter missing".
DR/Novell DOS
DR DOS 6.0 includes an implementation of the format command.
FreeDOS
The FreeDOS version was developed by Brian E. Reifsnyder and is licensed under the GPL.
ReactOS
The ReactOS implementation is based on a free clone developed by Mark Russinovich for Sysinternals in 1998. It is licensed under the GPL. It was adapted to ReactOS by Emanuele Aliberti in 1999 and supports FAT, FAT32, FATX, EXT2, and BtrFS filesystems.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Format (command)”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Ms-dosformat.png by Microsoft, Public domain
- IBM PC DOS 1.0 screenshot.png by IBM + Microsoft + Whoop whoop pull up, Public domain
- CPM-86.png by Digital Research, Inc., Public domain
- ReactOS-0.4.13 format command 667x514.png by Ghettoblaster, Public domain
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