The Format utility is the central tool for administering disks, enabling you to perform a range of tasks from discovering the types of disks on the system to verifying that these disks are known to the system.
Launch the utility by issuing the format command, which displays a list of disks on the system and prompts you to select a disk. After you select the disk, the Format Menu is displayed.
FORMAT MENU: disk – select a disk type – select (define) a disk type partition – select (define) a partition table current – describe the current disk format – format and analyze the disk fdisk – run the fdisk program ( x86 only) repair – repair a defective sector label – write label to the disk analyze – surface analysis defect – defect list management backup – search for backup labels verify – read and display labels save – save new disk/partition definitions inquiry – show vendor, product and revision volname – set 8-character volume name !<cmd> – execute <cmd>, then return format>
At the format > prompt, type the action that you want to perform. Depending on the action that you choose, you are prompted to perform further actions. To exit, you type quit.
For more information, see the format(8) man page as well as The format command Reference.
The format –e command launches the utility that enables you to write EFI-compliant disk labels to support disks with capacities greater than 1 TB. However, because many software components are still limited to 1 TB or less, use this command option with caution. For examples of how to use the format –e command, see Creating Disk Labels.