Name

fddisk − FDI disk maintenance utility

Syntax

/usr/bin/fddisk options special

Description

The fddisk utility, an FDI (integrated Floppy Disk Interface) disk maintenance program, can format a floppy disk, scan a floppy disk for bad blocks, read and write selected blocks, and be used in shell scripts for checking the status of floppy disks. Such status checks include checking for or waiting for the presence of media, and checking for or waiting for the user to change the media.

The special file argument is an unmounted, raw device pathname.  This device must be an FDI interface (fd). 

Options

-fUnless this switch is specified, an attempt to format or to install a file system fails in two cases.   The first failure occurs when the device has been opened since since the media was inserted.  The second failure occurs if the device is currently opened by another process. 

-fmtFormat the media to the density appropriate for that media. 

-hexdPSNCopy a hex dump of sector number PSN to stdout. 

-innn[:ccc]Use interleave factor nnn for formattting.  If specified, ccc indicates an additional inter-cylinder interleave. 

-pchdCopy a packed-C hex dump of the entire disk to stdout. 

-sSilent mode.  This switch blocks informational messages from appearing on stderr. 

-testRead the entire the media.  Fail if a bad sector is found. 

-waitWait for media to be inserted into the drive if there is none present. 

-waitnWait for new media to be inserted into the drive if there is none present or if the current media has been opened since last inserted. 

-whatRead the disk and report on the format of the disk. 

Restrictions

You must have read/write access to the device. 

The device must not be mounted. 

This program is restricted to use with a 3.5-inch diskette in the RX26 drive. 

It may not be possible to format a diskette at a higher density than it is already formated.  If this situation occurs, the diskette must first be bulk erased before it can be reformatted at a higher density. 

Examples

To format a floppy disk in drive zero:

/usr/bin/fddisk -fmt /dev/rfd0a

To format a floppy disk in drive zero when the disk has been read or written since it was inserted into the drive:

/usr/bin/fddisk -fmt -f /dev/rfd0a

See Also

dkio(4), fd(4), chpt(8), mount(8), restore(8), uerf(8), rzdisk(8)