Solaris 8 System Administration Supplement

Formatting Removable Media (`rmformat`)

You can use the rmformat command to format removable media, including the following types of diskettes:

Double-density – 720 Kbytes (3.5 inch)
High-density – 1.44 Mbytes (3.5 inch)

The rmformat command is a non-superuser utility that can format and protect rewritable removable media. The rmformat command has three formatting options:

quick – This option formats removable media without certification or with limited certification of certain tracks on the media.
long – This option formats removable media completely. For some devices, the use of this option might include the certification of the whole media by the drive itself.
force – This option formats completely without user confirmation. For media with a password-protection mechanism, this option clears the password before formatting. This feature is useful when a password is forgotten. On media without password protection, this option forces a long format.

How to Format Removable Media (`rmformat`)

The rmformat command formats the media and by default creates two partitions on the media: partition 0 and partition 2 (the whole media).

Verify that the volume manager is running, which means you can use the shorter nickname for the device name.
$ ps -ef | grep vold root 212 1 0 Nov 03 ? 0:01 /usr/sbin/vold
See the System Administration Guide, Volume 1 for information on determining removable media device names and starting volume manager if it is not running.

Format the removable media.
$ rmformat -F [ quick | long | force ] device-name
See the previous section for more information on rmformat formatting options.

If the rmformat output indicates bad blocks, see the following procedure for repairing bad blocks.

(Optional) Label the removable media with an 8-character label to be used in the Solaris environment.
$ rmformat -b label device-name
See mkfs_pcfs(1M) for information on creating a DOS label.

Examples—Formatting Removable Media

This example formats a diskette.

$ rmformat -F quick /dev/rdiskette
Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
Do you want to continue? (y/n) y
.........................................................................

This example formats a Zip drive.

$ rmformat -F quick zip0
Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
Do you want to continue? (y/n) y
.........................................................................

How to Format Removable Media for a UFS or UDFS File System

Format the media.
$ rmformat -F quick device-name

(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
See the System Administration Guide, Volume 1 for information on creating an alternate Solaris partition table.

Become superuser.

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—Formatting Removable Media for a UFS File System

The following example formats a diskette and creates a UFS file system.

$ rmformat -F quick /dev/rdiskette
Formatting will erase all the data on disk.
Do you want to continue? (y/n)y
$ su
# newfs /dev/rdiskette
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,
#

How to Format Removable Media for a PCFS File System

Format the removable media.
$ rmformat -F quick device-name

Become superuser.

(Optional) Create an alternate Solaris fdisk partition table.
# fdisk device-name
See the System Administration Guide, Volume 1 for information on creating an fdisk partition.

Create a PCFS file system.
# mkfs -F pcfs device-name

Examples—Formatting Removable Media for a PCFS File System

This example includes 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 describes 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
#

How to Check a PCFS File System on Removable Media

Become superuser.

Check the PCFS file system.
# fsck -F pcfs device-name

Example—Checking a PCFS File System on Removable Media

# fsck -F pcfs /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2
** /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0s2
** Scanning file system meta-data
** Correcting any meta-data discrepancies
1457664 bytes.
0 bytes in bad sectors.
0 bytes in 0 directories.
0 bytes in 0 files.
1457664 bytes free.
512 bytes per allocation unit.
2847 total allocation units.
2847 available allocation units.
#

How to Repair Bad Blocks on Removable Media

You can only use the rmformat command to verify, analyze, and repair bad sectors that are found during verification if the drive supports bad block management. Most diskettes and PCMCIA memory cards do not support bad block management.

If the drive supports bad block management, a best effort is made to rectify the bad block. If the bad block cannot be rectified despite the best effort mechanism, a message indicates a failure to repair.

Repair bad blocks on removable media.
$ rmformat -c block-numbers device-name
Supply the block number in decimal, octal, or hexadecimal format from a previous rmformat session.

Verify the media.
$ rmformat -V read device-name

Formatting Removable Media (rmformat)

How to Format Removable Media (rmformat)