1FLOPPY(8) FLOPPY(8)
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6 floppy - format floppy disks
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9 floppy [ --createrc >/etc/floppy | --format /dev/fdo | --format A: ]
10 floppygtk
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16 The floppy utility does low-level formatting of floppy disks. floppy
17 uses a simple interface for formatting disks in floppy controller
18 drives and in ATAPI IDE floppy drives, such as LS-120 "Superdisk"
19 drives. ATAPI IDE support requires a patch to the Linux kernel. Without
20 a patched kernel floppy can only format disks in floppy controller
21 drives.
22 Note: Use caution in formatting anything other than standard
24 3.5" 1.4MB floppy disks in ATAPI IDE floppy drives. Most LS-120
25 drives, for example, accept a request to format 120MB high den‐
26 sity disks, but most 120MB disks are not designed to be format‐
27 ted. Low-level formatting will ruin them permanently.
28 floppygtk is a GTK interface to the floppy utility. If started from an
30 X terminal window, floppy automatically runs floppygtk.
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33 --probe, -p
34 Probe for available floppy drives. floppy creates and displays a
35 list of all detected floppy drives.
36 --createrc, -r
38 Print a configuration file. floppy prints on standard output the
39 results of the --probe option in a configuration file format.
40 This configuration file should be saved as /etc/floppy.
41 --showrc
43 List floppy drives configured in /etc/floppy.
44 --capacity, -c
46 Show the available format capacities of the floppy drive. Most
47 floppy drives can format disks of different capacities. --capac‐
48 ity lists each available format capacity as CxBxS where: C -
49 number of cylinders, B - blocks per cylinder, S - block size, in
50 bytes. --capacity also calculates how much that is, in kilo‐
51 bytes ormegabytes.
52 --format, -f
54 Format the disk in the floppy drive.
55 --size=CxBxS, -s=CxBxS
57 Specify the size of the disk to format. --format uses the first
58 format capacity reported by --capacity if the --size option is
59 not specified.
60 --ext2 Create an ext2 (Linux) filesystem on the formatted floppy. This
62 option requires the e2fsprogs package to be installed. This
63 option runs mke2fs after formatting the floppy disk.
64 --fat Create a FAT (DOS) filesystem on the formatted floppy. This
66 option requires the dosfstools package to be installed. This
67 option runs mkdosfs after formatting the floppy disk.
68 --noprompt, -n
70 Suppress verbose output produced by --capacity and --format. Use
71 a raw output format that can be used by a front-end wrapper that
72 runs floppy on the back-end.
73 --eject
75 Eject the floppy from the drive (IDE floppy drives with an elec‐
76 tronic eject mechanism).
77 PROBING FOR AVAILABLE FLOPPY DRIVES
79 floppy --probe
80 This command probes the hardware and reports on the available floppy
82 drives. A typical output from --probe would be:
83 floppy 0.16 Copyright 2001-2003, Double Precision, Inc.
85 floppy /dev/fd0: 3.5" HD
87 idefloppy /dev/hda: LS-120 VER5 00 UHD Floppy
88 Revision: F523M5A9
89 Serial number: 9803M9A03464
90 Here, floppy detected a high density floppy drive on /dev/fd0, and an
92 IDE floppy drive on /dev/hda.
93 CREATING A CONFIGURATION FILE
95 A configuration file, /etc/floppy must be created before floppy can
96 format floppy disks. This configuration file can be created automati‐
97 cally by the --createrc option. Each line in the configuration file
98 contains the following information: type<TAB>label<TAB>device. "<TAB>"
99 is a single ASCII TAB character. "device" is the device entry for the
100 floppy drive. floppy requires that all requests for formatting flop‐
101 pies must use only the devices that appear in this configuration file.
102 "label" is an alias for this device. floppy accepts "label:" instead
103 of the actual device entry, for example: "floppy --format A:". "type"
104 is either "floppy" or "idefloppy".
105 The --createrc option sets "A" as the label for the first floppy drive,
107 and "B" for the second floppy drive. If --createrc finds more than two
108 floppy drives, --createrc will use "FA", "FB", "FC", and so on.
109 DETERMINING AVAILABLE FORMAT CAPACITIES
111 Most floppy drives can format disks of different capacities. The
112 --capacity option shows possible format capacities on the specified
113 floppy device. A typical IDE floppy drive may report the following
114 capacities:
115 $ floppy --capacity B:
117 Formattable capacities for /dev/hda:
118 80x36x512 (1.40 Mb)
119 80x30x512 (1.17 Mb)
120 56x22x1024 (1.20 Mb)
121 A standard floppy drive attached to the floppy controller may report
123 the following capacities:
124 $ floppy --capacity A:
126 Formattable capacities for /dev/fd0:
127 80x36x512 (/dev/fd0H1440, 1.40 Mb)
128 80x18x512 (/dev/fd0D720, 720 Kb)
129 80x48x512 (/dev/fd0u1920, 1.87 Mb)
130 80x28x512 (/dev/fd0u1120, 1.09 Mb)
131 80x40x512 (/dev/fd0u1660, 1.56 Mb)
132 80x26x512 (/dev/fd0u1040, 1.01 Mb)
133 80x46x512 (/dev/fd0u1840, 1.79 Mb)
134 80x42x512 (/dev/fd0u1680, 1.64 Mb)
135 The --capacity option reports each available format capacity as "cylin‐
137 ders x blocks-per-cylinder x block size". IDE floppy drive only return
138 a total block count, and --capacity tries some common blocks-per-cylin‐
139 der geometries, until it finds one that fits. Format capacities of
140 standard floppy drives are obtained from the floppy device driver.
141 Note:
143 IDE floppy drives may report format capacities only after a disk
145 is inserted. Without a floppy disk, IDE floppy drives may not
146 report any available format capacities, or they may report the
147 primary format capacity that they are designed to format. For
148 example, most LS-120 drives default to reporting 120mb when
149 there is no disk inserted in the drive:
150 $ floppy --capacity A:
152 Formattable capacities for /dev/hda:
153 6848x36x512 (120.37 Mb)
154 Warning: Do not attempt to format 120Mb media in LS-120 drives.
156 Most LS-120 disks are not user-formattable. They are factory-
157 formatted, and attempts to format them in LS-120 drives will
158 render them unusable (to be sure, check the label on the floppy
159 itself). The floppy utility does not prevent one from trying to
160 use any format capacity the IDE floppy drive claims to support.
161 If the drive claims it can format a disk of the given capacity,
162 floppy will oblige.
163 FORMATTING
165 The --format option does a low-level format on the floppy.
166 $ ./floppy --format --size=80x36x512 A:
168 Formatting 1.40 Mb... 0%
169 --size must specify a geometry returned by --capacity. If --size is
171 absent, the first geometry is selected.
172 For floppy controller drives, the status counter will go from 0% to
174 100%. With most IDE floppy drives the counter will remain at 0% until
175 the format finishes. Some IDE floppy drives are capable of reporting
176 format progress status, which will would allow --format to count up
177 from 0% to 100%.
178 $ ./floppy --format --verify A:
180 The --verify option verifies the low-level format. For floppy con‐
182 troller drives, the floppy disk is read from start to finish, after the
183 low-level format concludes. For IDE floppy drives, the format request
184 to the drive sets a flag that that requests low-level format verifica‐
185 tion.
186 Note: Some IDE floppy drives ignore the verify request, or
188 always verify low-level formats, whether or not it was
189 requested.
190 $ ./floppy --format -V A:
192 The -V option is like --verify except that IDE floppy drive formats are
194 verified manually - like floppy controller drive formats - by reading
195 the floppy disk from start to finish.
196
198 /etc/floppy
199 The configuration file.
200 /dev/fd[0-7]
202 Floppy controller drives.
203 /dev/hd[a-h]
205 ATAPI IDE floppy drives.
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208 fd(4), mkdosfs(8), mke2fs(8).
209Double Precision, Inc. 29 January 2006 FLOPPY(8)