Read the following overview of the format utility and its uses before proceeding to the “how-to” or reference sections.
The format utility is a system administration tool that is used to prepare hard disk drives for use on your Solaris system.
The following table shows the features and associated benefits that the format utility provides.
Table 32–5 Features and Benefits of the format Utility
Feature |
Benefit |
---|---|
Searches your system for all attached disk drives |
|
Retrieves disk labels |
Convenient for repair operations |
Repairs defective sectors |
Allows administrators to repair disk drives with recoverable errors instead of sending the drive back to the manufacturer |
Formats and analyzes a disk |
Creates sectors on the disk and verifies each sector |
Partitions a disk |
Divides a disk into slices so individual file systems can be created on separate slices |
Labels a disk |
Writes disk name and configuration information to the disk for future retrieval (usually for repair operations) |
The format utility options are fully described in Chapter 36, The format Utility (Reference).
Disk drives are partitioned and labeled by the Solaris installation program when you install the Solaris release. You can use the format utility to do the following:
Display slice information
Divide a disk into slices
Add a disk drive to an existing system
Format a disk drive
Label a disk
Repair a disk drive
Analyze a disk for errors
The main reason a system administrator uses the format utility is to divide a disk into disk slices. These steps are covered in Chapter 34, SPARC: Adding a Disk (Tasks) and Chapter 35, x86: Adding a Disk (Tasks).
See the following section for guidelines on using the format utility.
Task |
Guidelines |
For More Information |
---|---|---|
Format a disk |
| |
Replace a system disk |
|
SPARC: How to Connect a System Disk and Boot or x86: How to Connect a System Disk and Boot or if the system must be reinstalled, Solaris 9 12/03 Installation Guide |
Divide a disk into slices |
|
SPARC: How to Create Disk Slices and Label a Disk or x86: How to Create Disk Slices and Label a Disk |
Add a secondary disk to an existing system |
|
SPARC: How to Connect a Secondary Disk and Boot or x86: How to Connect a Secondary Disk and Boot |
Repair a disk drive |
|
In most cases, disks are formatted by the manufacturer or reseller. So, they do not need to be reformatted when you install the drive. To determine if a disk is formatted, use the format utility. For more information, see How to Determine if a Disk is Formatted.
If you determine that a disk is not formatted, use the format utility to format the disk.
When you format a disk, you accomplishes two steps:
The disk media is prepared for use
A list of disk defects based on a surface analysis is compiled
Formatting a disk is a destructive process because it overwrites data on the disk. For this reason, disks are usually formatted only by the manufacturer or reseller. If you think disk defects are the cause of recurring problems, you can use the format utility to do a surface analysis. However, be careful to use only the commands that do not destroy data. For details, see How to Format a Disk.
A small percentage of total disk space that is available for data is used to store defect and formatting information. This percentage varies according to disk geometry, and decreases as the disk ages and develops more defects.
Formatting a disk might take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, depending on the type and size of the disk.