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Format

Formats a disk for use with the Amiga.

Format	FORMAT DEVICE \| DRIVE <device> NAME <name> [OFS \| FFS] [INTERNATIONAL \| NOINTERNATIONAL] [DIRCACHE \| NODIRCACHE] [NOICONS] [QUICK]
Template	DEVICE=DRIVE/K/A,NAME/K/A,OFS/S,FFS/S,INTL=INTERNATIONAL/S,NOINTL=NOINTERNATIONAL/S,DIRCACHE/S,NODIRCACHE/S,NOICON/S,QUICK/S
Location	SYS:System

You must specify both the DEVICE and the NAME keywords to format a disk. The name can be up to thirty-one characters in length. If there are spaces in the name, enclose it in double quotation marks.

The OFS option formats the disk using the Old File System. The FFS option formats the disk using the Fast File System. FFS formatted disks are faster than OFS formatted disks; however, the FFS disks are not compatible with Amiga system software releases prior to 2.04. The default setting for floppy disks is OFS and for PCMCIA cards and hard drive partitions is FFS.

The INTERNATIONAL option formats disks using the international versions of the file systems. International file systems handle upper and lower letter case conversions of international characters in file names. The NOINTERNATIONAL option forces the non-international file system on devices for which International mode is the default. The default setting for floppy disks and PCMCIA cards is NOINTERNATIONAL and for hard drive partitions is INTERNATIONAL. Disks created with INTERNATIONAL mode set are not compatible with Amiga system software releases prior to 2.04.

The DIRCACHE option enables directory caching, which speeds the opening of drawers, files, requesters, and listings. Using directory caching for floppy disks and systems with slow hard drives speeds directory listings and Workbench window opening. Directory caching is not useful on systems with fast hard drives. The NODIRCACHE option disables directory caching. Disks formatted with Directory Caching s et are not compatible with Amiga system software releases prior to 3.0. The default setting for floppy disks, PCMCIA cards, and hard drives is NODIRCACHE.

The NOICONS option prevents a Trashcan icon and directory from being added to the newly formatted disk.

The QUICK option specifies that Format only formats and creates the root block (and track), the boot block (and track) and creates the bitmap blocks. This can only be used with previously formatted disks. However, you cannot use this to reformat disks for AmigaDOS that were previously formatted for CrossDOS and vice versa.

Example 1:

1> FORMAT DRIVE DF0: NAME EmptyDisk

Formats the disk in drive DF0:; erasing any data, and names the disk EmptyDisk.

Example 2:

1> FORMAT DRIVE DF2: NAME NewDisk QUICK

Reformats, or erases, a disk that already contains data.

For more examples using the Format command, see Chapter 8.