On Sat, 2004-12-04 at 18:44 -0500, SOTL wrote:
> I need to format a disk to ext2.
> I thought the command for this was mkfs -t ext2 /dev/fd0
> But! I get an error message mkfs command not found in bash.
> What am I doing wrong?
Nothing.
"mkfs" typically isn't in a non-privileged user's path.
Use "/sbin/mkfs"
On Sat, 4 Dec 2004, Mike Dittmeier wrote:
> the command is fdformat /dev/fd0H1440
On Sat, 2004-12-04 at 21:33, Eben King wrote:
> It depends how "unformatted" the disk is.
Correct.
The "fdformat" command (although it various from UNIX to UNIX, and Linux
distro to Linux distro -- i.e., some distros allow you to specify a -t
filesystem option) typically only does the "low-level" format. You can
specify a _specific_ format via the device like fd0h1440 (High density,
1.44MB), or even some of the 1.68/1.72MB formats that use extra
cylinders/sectors (and may not work or may even damage some drives). If
"fdformat /dev/fd0" fails to detect the low-level format, you'll need to
specify such a device w/size.
But you typically still use "mkfs", "mformat" or another utility to plop
the actual filesystem on _after_ the low-level format. In fact, if the
floppy has been low-level formatted prior (and most come this way), then
that's all you need to do. Although it never hurts to re-low-level
format to verify all sectors are good. Although if your floppy heads
are really off, it might make it readable only in your system. @-p
The latter (fdformat) is like "Quick Format" in DOS/NT -- it merely
plops down the filesystem.
The former+latter (fdformat+mkfs/mformat/etc...) is like the
"[Unconditional] Format" in DOS/NT.
Again, some "fdformat" command in some UNIX/Linux allow you to specify a
filesystem type (or default to MSDOS, VFAT or Ext2), and will do both in
one command.
-- Bryan J. Smith b.j.smith@ieee.org -------------------------------------------------------------------- Subtotal Cost of Ownership (SCO) for Windows being less than Linux Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) assumes experts for the former, costly retraining for the latter, omitted "software assurance" costs in compatible desktop OS/apps for the former, no free/legacy reuse for latter, and no basic security, patch or downtime comparison at all.----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 20:14:43 EDT