Formatting OptionsWithin the outline of a box in the left center of Kfloppy the user may find a set of five formatting options. The top two are a pair of radio buttons.
Note
This term (radio buttons) indicates a set of options among which only one can be selected - in the same way that only one preset channel selection may be set on a car radio.
The bottom two options are for labeling the diskette. All are explained below:
Kfloppy can format a disk in the following two ways:
- Quick Format
This simply puts the new file system on the disk.
Warning
All data on the disk will be lost, even if the data itself will not be erased.
- Zero out and quick format
This format first puts zeros on the disk and then creates the new file system.
Warning
All data on the disk will be erased.
- Full Format
A full format reallocates the tracks and sectors, puts the selected file system on the disk, and then verifies the format, blocking out any bad sectors it finds.
Warning
All data on the disk will be erased.
This tells Kfloppy to check that the formatting was correctly written to the floppy. This allows bad sectors to be identified.
Note
If bad sectors are found during the verify phase of a Full Format, the formatting is aborted and the file system is not written!
The bottom two features allow the user to add (or change) a label to the diskette. If the Volume label: check box is selected then the user can enter a name (label) for the diskette that is to be formatted in the text box located immediately below. When the diskette is subsequently formatted the label will be written to the diskette.
Note
Due to a limitation of the DOS file system, a label can only be at most 11 characters long. For simplification, Kfloppy assumes that this limit is true for all file systems.
Note
The file system Minix™ cannot have any volume label. In this case, Kfloppy will ignore the volume label.