How to Format Removable Media for Adding a File System

Steps

1. Format the media.

   $ rmformat -F quick device-name

2. (Optional) Create an alternate Solaris partition table.

   $ rmformat -s slice-file device-name

   A sample slice file looks like the following:

   slices: 0 = 0, 30MB, "wm", "home" : 1 = 30MB, 51MB : 2 = 0, 94MB, "wm", "backup" : 6 = 81MB, 13MB

3. Become superuser.

4. Determine the appropriate file system type and select one of the following:

   1. Create a UFS file system.

      # newfs device-name

   2. Create a UDFS file system.

      # mkfs -F udfs device-name

Example 3–2 Formatting a Diskette for a UFS File System

The following example shows how to format a diskette and create a UFS file system on the diskette.

$ rmformat -F quick /vol/dev/aliases/floppy0
Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
Do you want to continue? (y/n) y
$ su
# /usr/sbin/newfs /vol/dev/aliases/floppy0
newfs: construct a new file system /dev/rdiskette: (y/n)? y
/dev/rdiskette: 2880 sectors in 80 cylinders of 2 tracks, 18 sectors
        1.4MB in 5 cyl groups (16 c/g, 0.28MB/g, 128 i/g)
super-block backups (for fsck -F ufs -o b=#) at:
 32, 640, 1184, 1792, 2336,
# 

Example 3–3 Formatting a PCMCIA Memory Card for a UFS File System

The following example shows how to format a PCMCIA memory card and create a UFS file system on the card.

$ rmformat -F quick /vol/dev/aliases/pcmem0
$ su
# /usr/sbin/newfs -v /vol/dev/aliases/pcmem0
newfs: construct a new file system /vol/dev/aliases/pcmem0:(y/n)? y
.
.
.
#

Example 3–4 Formatting Removable Media for a PCFS File System

This example shows how to create an alternate fdisk partition.

$ rmformat -F quick /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2:c
Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
Do you want to continue? (y/n) y
$ su
# fdisk /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2:c 
# mkfs -F pcfs /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2:c
Construct a new FAT file system on /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2:c: (y/n)? y
#

This example shows how to create a PCFS file system without an fdisk partition.

$ rmformat -F quick /dev/rdiskette
Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
Do you want to continue? (y/n) y
$ su
# mkfs -F pcfs -o nofdisk,size=2 /dev/rdiskette
Construct a new FAT file system on /dev/rdiskette: (y/n)? y
#