Formatting a Disk

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An unformatted disk is unusable. The Format utility can detect formatted disks. Select the disk that you want to verify, as shown in the following example for the c2t1d0 disk. After you select the disk, the utility indicates whether the disk is formatted.

# format
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
0. c2t0d0 <SUN36G cyl 14087 alt 2 hd 24 sec 424>
/pci@1c,600000/scsi@2/sd@0,0
/dev/chassis/J4200@RACK10:U24-25/SCSI_Device__0/disk
1. c2t1d0 <SUN72G cyl 14087 alt 2 hd 24 sec 424>
/pci@1c,600000/scsi@2/sd@1,0
/dev/chassis/J4200@RACK10:U24-25/SCSI_Device__1/disk
Specify disk (enter its number): 1Disk c2t1d0 is selected.
selectin c2t1d0
[disk formatted]The selected disk is already formatted.

The Format utility automatically configures any unlabeled SCSI disk. The utility would display information about the formatted disk as follows:

c2t3d0: configured with capacity of 136.73GB

Note - Because formatting disks destroys data, if you suspect that a disk is corrupted, you can select analyze from the Format Menu. This functionality performs a surface analysis of the disk. After the test, you can determine if formatting is necessary.

Example 41 Formatting Disk c2t1d0

The following example shows how to format c2t1d0 that you selected after launching the Format utility.

format> formatFormatting is selected.
The protection information is not enabled
The disk will be formatted with protection type 0

Ready to format.  Formatting cannot be interrupted
and takes 169 minutes (estimated). Continue? yes

Beginning format. The current time is Fri Apr 1 ...

Formatting...
done

Verifying media...
pass 0 - pattern = 0xc6dec6de
14086/23/734

pass 1 - pattern = 0x6db6db6d
14086/23/734

Total of 0 defective blocks repaired.

format> q