FORMAT COMMAND

Purpose:  Formats a disk in the specified drive, creating a structure, that
          can be perceived by the DOS. The command looks through all paths,
          and blocks all damaged sectors for further usage.  Initializes the
          Root directory.

WARNING:
     Formatting destroys any previously existing data on a disk. So we
recommend you make sure that your decision to run FORMAT is correct.
Formatting a hard disk destroys previously created DOS segment, directories
and their contents. A hard disk must have a DOS segment. If it is absent,
the FORMAT command will not recognize this disk. If the letter of the drive
is omitted, the following message will be displayed:

        Drive not specified

Syntax: [d:][path]FORMAT d: [parameters]

Type:   External command

Parameters:

[d:] [path] before the command, defines the drive and the path of the
            FORMAT command.
[d:]      - specifies the drive containing the disk to be formated.
/?/H      - help.
/S        - the following files of the operating system should be copied
            from the DOS system disk to the new disk:
            PTSBIO.SYS
            PTSDOS.SYS
            COMMAND.COM
/B        - the following files should be copied from the DOS system disk
            of DOS to a new one:
            PTSBIO.SYS
            PTSDOS.SYS
/U        - may be useful for nonstandard format (blocks check-ups
            of certain parameters).
/E        - "verify" mode: global disk testing (without formatting),
            resetting logical parameters.
/Q        - "quick" mode: cleaning the Root directory and FAT only,
            reloading of the initial sector.
/F:<size> - choose one of the standard disk formats (sizes: 160, 180,
            320, 360, 720, 800, 1200, 1440, 2880).
/V:[volume label]
          - gives an opportunity to label a disk. It is convenient to use
            this parameter, as  label identifies every disk individually.
            A label cannot be used instead of a filename, because the
            latter is an input parameter of a system command.

/N:<sectors per track>;
/T:<number of tracks>
          - allows to create a disk with nonstandard physical parameters.

/C:<cluster size>
          - number of sectors per cluster.

/R:<root dir size>
          - max. number of files in the root directory.

/A:<number of FATs>

/O:<interleave>
          - provides extra space between consecutively readable sectors on
            the track; "interleave" is the space size in sectors; this
            option is useful for format of the highest recording density for
            a drive; recomended interleave is 1 or 2.

/I:<intertrack optimization offset>
          - provides additional interleave between the last sector on the
            previous track being read and the first one on the next track;
            it is useful for many types of floppy drives; recommended
            value is 1 (rarely 2).

Notes:

1. Every new floppy or hard disk must be formatted before use.
2. If the length of the DOS segment is changed with the FDISK command, a
   hard disk should be formatted again.
3. Formatting destroys any previously existing data on a disk.
4. All the damaged clusters get "BAD" attribute during formatting.
   Therefore, these clusters won't be later used for holding data.
5. PTSBIO.SYS and PTSDOS.SYS files are hidden, that's why they are
   invisible, when you look through directory.
6. The FORMAT command gives the following information about the disk:
     - full capacity of the current disk
     - the capacity of the damaged disk space
     - disk space for users' files.
7. Hard disks are formatted physically during their manufacturing. The
   FORMAT command only checks sectors of DOS segments.
8. If you want to write all the three system modules using the FORMAT
   command together with the /S option and there is a lack of RAM, the
   system will write as much data as possible, format a target disk and
   write modules from memory. Then it will load the rest part of the system
   modules in the memory and write it on the target disk. If the source
   diskette is removed from the drive, the system will prompt you with the
   corresponding message. The execution of the command will continue, once
   you insert the source diskette back in the drive.
9. The FORMAT command ignores any redefinition of drives (ASSIGN).
10.You should not use the FORMAT command with drives, redefined by JOIN
   and SUBST commands.
11.You cannot use the FORMAT command with a network drive.
12 Hard disks have standard physical parameters, known by DOS. If you try to
   use /F, /T, /N options for them, it will be considered to be a mistake.
   By default, the max. standard size, possible for the given drive is
   assumed.
13.If the /C, /R, /A options are not specified, the system uses the standard
   parameters for the given size of a disk.
14.The /I, /O options can be used for diskettes only and serve to improve
   their read-write performance.
15.The following options are ignored in "verify" mode: /F, /T, /N, /I, /O;
   all options, except /V, /S, /B are ignored in "quick" mode.
16.The disk, that has the number of FATs different from two, won't be read
   correctly under MS-DOS.
17.If the /V option isn't specified, the user will be prompted to enter the
   volume label; if you want to get the disk without the label, you can
   specify /V: without the name or simply press "Enter".
18.When using the command with /S or /B options, the system files (and
   corresponding BOOT-code) are searched for on the disk, from which the
   system was last loaded; if they are not found, you should enter DOS
   filenames with corresponding pathes from the console; if you are trying
   to format the disk, from which you loaded last time, you will be prompted
   to insert the system disk into the drive A:.

Examples:

1.    A>format b:/s

The command formats the floppy disk inserted in the B: drive and copies
the system files. Before the execution of this command the following
message is displayed:

      Insert disk into drive and press <Enter> ...

When you insert the corresponding disk and press the "Enter" switch, the
following message will be displayed:

           Formatting:      t tracks      h heads      s sec/trk
                track:      t  head:      h

When the command is completed, the following information will be displayed:

           Format complete
           Input volume label (11 characters) : mydisk
           System transferred
           Volume serial number is  XXXX-XXXX

               xxxxxx bytes total disk space
               xxxxxx bytes available on disk
                 xxxx bytes per allocation unit

           Format another (Y/N)?

     In this example MYDISK is the volume label, entered by the user.  If
you want to continue formatting, press "Y".  Otherwise, press "N".

     If you are formatting a hard disk, then instead of the prompt for the
floppy disk the following message will be displayed:

           This is hard disk !!!
           All information will be lost !
           Proceed formatting ? (Y/N)

     If you want to format the hard disk, press "Y". Otherwise, press "N".

     It takes a few minutes to format a hard disk, depending on the capacity
given to the DOS system. In other words, the FORMAT command works while the
indicator on the disk panel burns.