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Formatting a disk for use by an operating system and its applications typically involves three different processes. [e]Low-level formatting (i.e., closest to the hardware) marks the surfaces of the disks with markers indicating the start of a recording block (typically today called sector markers) and other information like block CRC to be used later, in normal operations, by the disk ...
In computing, format is a command-line utility that carries out disk formatting. It is a component of various operating systems , including 86-DOS , MS-DOS , IBM PC DOS and OS/2 , Microsoft Windows and ReactOS .
For example, in DOS 5, if the current directory is C:\TEMP, then TRUENAME command.com will display C:\TEMP\COMMAND.COM (which does not exist), not C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM (which does and is in the PATH). This command displays the UNC pathnames of mapped network or local CD drives. This command is an undocumented DOS command.
The Linux fdformat program works with the kernel floppy driver. It simply formats a floppy disk using whatever parameters is already known to the system. [1] The setfdprm can be used to provide the system with unusual formatting parameters with which to format.
Under real mode operating systems, such as DOS, calling INT 13h would jump into the computer's ROM-BIOS code for low-level disk services, which would carry out physical sector-based disk read or write operations for the program. In DOS, it serves as the low-level interface for the built-in block device drivers for hard disks and floppy disks.
Personally I think writing of the servo information is a separate step and prior to low-level formatting but that doesn't change the fact that the INSTALL command of the ISCKSF utility (or earlier variants thereof) does at least a part of the low-level formatting process of all CKD drives and all of the low-level formatting of early CKD drives ...
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NewDos/80 had many options for specifying specific low-level disk configurations. Settings such as diskette formats, disk drive types, track geometry and controllers could be configured using the PDRIVE command. [1] In version 2.1, Apparat added support for hard disk drives via an external bus adapter.