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System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems

ProcedureHow to Format a USB Mass Storage Device Without vold Running

USB mass storage devices, as all others used by the Solaris operating system, must be formatted and contain a file system before they can be used. USB mass storage devices, including diskettes, support both PCFS and UFS file systems. Be sure the disk is formatted before putting either a PCFS or UFS file system on it.

Steps

  1. See How to Prepare to Use USB Mass Storage Devices Without vold Running for information on disabling vold.

  2. (Optional) Add the USB diskette device to your system.

    For information on hot-plugging USB devices, see:

  3. (Optional) Identify the diskette device.

    For example:


    # cd /dev/rdsk
# devfsadm -C
# ls -l c*0 | grep usb
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root  root   55 Mar  5 10:35 c2t0d0s0 ->
../../devices/pci@1f,0/usb@c,3/storage@3/disk@0,0:a,raw

    In this example, the diskette device is c2t0d0s0.

  4. Insert a diskette into the diskette drive.

  5. Format the diskette.


    % rmformat -Flong raw-device

    For example:


    % rmformat -Flong /dev/rdsk/c2t0d0s0

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

    1. Create a PCFS file system.


      # mkfs -F pcfs -o nofdisk,size=size raw-device

      Specify the -size option in 512–byte blocks.

      The following example shows how to create a PCFS file system on a 1.4 Mbyte diskette.


      # mkfs -F pcfs -o nofdisk,size=2880 /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0s0

      The following example shows how to create a UFS file system on a 100 Mbyte Zip drive.


      # mkfs -F pcfs -o nofdisk,size=204800 /dev/rdsk/c5t0d0s0

      This command can take several minutes to complete.

    2. Create a UFS file system.


      # newfs raw-device

      For example:


      # newfs /dev/rdsk/c4t0d0s0
      Note –

      UFS file system overhead consumes a significant portion of space on a diskette, due to a diskette's limited storage capacity.