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Undocumented FORMAT

Using some undocumented items of FORMAT




Want a quick help of FORMAT.COM?

Type FORMAT/? at the command prompt, and glimpse on what options available. I use DOS version 7.10 that come with Windows 95 OSR2, and remember some options that are not listed but I use so often (I assumed not listed as undocumented, since I do not have a copy of DOS manual). Some of them are:

  • /u for unconditional format.
    As far as I can remember, /u option prevent DOS to create unformat information, that will speed up formatting.
  • /autotest
    This is quite destructive option when used carelessly. This option skips every prompt before and after formatting a disk, even with harddisk! Use it carefully!
  • /z:x, where x is 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64
    Available only with FORMAT.COM that supports FAT32. x is a multiply of 512 bytes. Use 1 to format harddisk to FAT32 with 512 bytes per cluster, 2 for 1024 bytes per cluster, and so on.
¥


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