Format

Format About Window

Format Select Device Window

Format Information Window

Format 1st Confirmation Window

Format 2nd Confirmation Window

Full Format Process Window

Introduction

The Format command is used to erase a device or hard disk partition.

It can be used from Workbench with it's user interface or alternatively as a command line program.

WARNING: the Format process is a destructive operation and will erase data currently stored on the device or partition you are formatting. Ensure that any data you wish to keep is backed-up before starting the Format process.

Using Format

Workbench

Format can be invoked from the Workbench by right clicking on a device icon and selecting the Format disk... option from the icons menu or it can be run directly from the System drawer by double clicking on it's icon. If you run it directly, the Format Select Device window will appear listing the available devices on the system.

Command Line

Alternatively Format command can be run directly from the CLI.

Shown below are the command line options that the Format command accepts in the CLI:

DEVICE=DRIVE/K/A,NAME/K/A,OFS/S,FFS/S,INTL=INTERNATIONAL/S,
NOINTL=NOINTERNATIONAL/S,DIRCACHE/S,NODIRCACHE/S,LN=LONGNAME/S,
NOICONS/S,QUICK/S,NOVERIFY/S,NOCONFIRM/S,MAXMEM/K/N,RETRY/K/N,
LOGFILE/K,CS=CASESENSITIVE/S,NR=NORECYCLED/S,SR=SHOWRECYCLED/S

Examples:

To fully Format a device 'DH1: called Empty you would use the following command in the CLI:

format drive DH1: name Empty

To quick Format a device 'DH1: called Empty you would use the following command in the CLI:

format drive DH1: name Empty QUICK

Full / Quick Format

Quick Format option is used, as the name suggests, to format the device or hard disk partition in the least amount of time. When this option is selected the device is not exhaustively erased block by block, but instead it is marked as formatted and available to be re-used and overwritten.

Format option is a full format process where every block is erased exhaustively. As a consequence, for large devices or partitions it can take a very long time to complete the Format operation.