PREP(8) 						      System Manager's Manual							   PREP(8)

NAME

       prep, format - prepare hard and floppy diskettes

SYNOPSIS

       disk/prep [ -ra ] special [ type ]

       disk/format [ -t type ] [ -f ] [ -d ] [ -b bfile ] [ -c csize ] [ -l label ] drive [ files ... ]

DESCRIPTION

       A  partition table is stored on a hard disk to specify the division of the physical disk into a set of logical units.  On Plan 9 the parti-
       tion table is a list of triples: name, starting sector, and ending sector.  The kernel fabricates the first two partitions, disk and parti-
       tion; the disk partition records the starting and ending sectors for the whole disk, and the partition partition, typically the last sector
       on the disk, holds the partition table itself.

       Special is the maximal prefix of names of the logical units on the disk, for example #w/hd0.  Prep reads and prints the	associated  parti-
       tion table and then enters a simple interactive mode to control editing the table.

       The options are:

       -r     (read only) prohibits writing the table on disk.

       -a     automatically  create  default partitions if no partition table already exists.  These include partitions for DOS, a boot kernel, an
	      NVRAM substitute, a kfs(4) file system, and, if room remains, a swap partition.

       Format prepares for use the floppy diskette in the disk file named drive, for example /dev/fd0disk.  The options are:

       -f     Do not physically format the disc. Used to install an MS-DOS filesystem on a previously formatted disc. With this option, drive  can
	      be a plain file.

       -t     specify a density and type of disk to be prepared.  The possible types are:

	      31/2DD 31/2" double density, 737280 bytes

	      31/2HD 31/2" high density, 1474560 bytes

	      51/4DD 51/4" double density, 368640 bytes

	      51/4HD 51/4"  high density, 1146880 bytes

	      The default is the highest possible on the device, unless -f is used, in which case the default is 31/2HD.

       -d     add MS-DOS parameter block, file access table (FAT), and root directory to the start of the floppy.

       The remaining options have effect only when -d is specified:

       -b     use the contents of bfile as the bootstrap block installed in sector 0.

       -c     use a DOS cluster size of csize sectors when creating the DOS FAT.

       -l     add a label when creating the DOS parameter block.

       Again  under -d, any files listed are added, in order, to the root directory of the MS-DOS filesytem.  The files are contiguously allocated
       and created with the READONLY attribute set.

       The file /sys/src/boot/pc/bb is an example of a suitable bfile to make the disk a boot disk.  It gets loaded by the BIOS at  0x7C00,  reads
       the  root  directory into address 0x7E00, and looks at the first root directory entry.  If that file is called B.COM, it uses single sector
       reads to load the file into address 0x10000 and then jumps to the loaded file image.

EXAMPLE

       Create a Plan 9 boot floppy on a previously formatted diskette:

	      disk/format -f -b bb -d /dev/fd0disk /386/b.com

SOURCE

       /sys/src/cmd/disk/prep.c
       /sys/src/cmd/disk/format.c
       /sys/src/boot/pc/bb.s

SEE ALSO

       floppy(3), wren(3), b.com(8)

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