Warning: older DOS versions can only use overformats with a driver.ħ20k in 1440k needs 720k media. More tracks will not work on all drives, use at your own Sectors and 1494k (instead of 1200k) and 1743k (and 3486k) with more Supported overformats are: 400k, 800k, 1680k (and 3660k) with more Inch and 720k and 1440k (2880k never tested so far) for 3,5 inch drives. Supported FAT types are: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, all with mirror / unformat. The mirror data will always overwrite the end of the data area!įORMAT autoselects a mode (see above) if you select neither /Q nor /U. If you want to force lowlevel format (floppy) or want to have the wholeĭisk surface scanned and all contents wiped (harddisk), use /U.įORMAT /Q /U is quick full format (no lowlevel format / scan / wipe!)įORMAT /Q is quick save format (save mirror data if possible)

Quick full format only resets the filesystem. Modes for HARDDISK are: Tries to use quick safe format. Quick safe format saves mirror data for UNFORMAT. Modes for FLOPPY are: Tries to use quick safe format. Warning: while format supports FAT32, running under Win9x to create FAT32 Z:unformat Unformats the disk, if the MIRROR data is fresh. Z:seriously Suppresses the confirmation request when you use format Z:mirror Saves the UNFORMAT ' MIRROR data', without formatting the Z:longhelp: Gives detailed, technical usage information. V:label Specifies a volume LABEL for the disk, stores date and NOTE: This option may last VERY VERY long! Press ESC and T:tracks Specifies the number of tracks on a floppy disk. S Calls SYS to make the disk bootable and to add system files

UNFORMATed and preserves bad cluster marks (/Q /U does not) N:sectors Specifies the number of sectors per track on a floppy disk. F:size Specifies the size of the floppy disk to format. D Be very verbose and show debugging output.

B Reserve space to make a bootable disk (is dummy and cannot A Forces 4k alignment for FAT32 formatting. 8 Format a 5-1/4 inch disk with 8 sectors per track 4 Format a 160k/360k floppy disk in a 1.2 MB floppy drive. 1 Format a single-sided disk (160k/180k). FORMAT formats a hard drive or floppy disk.

Formatting a floppy disk to 800k