Special Features in DOS

Formatting a Floppy Disk

When we purchase new floppy disks, we may be required to format them before we can use them. Practice formatting a floppy disk now.

Caution The data on the disk we format will be erased, so make sure we select a disk that does not contain information we may need later.

. To format a floppy disk

1. Type the following at the command prompt:

format a:

This command specifies that we want to format the disk in drive A. When we press ENTER, the following message appears:

Insert new diskette for drive A:

and press ENTER when ready ...

2. Insert the disk we want to format in drive A label-side up. Then close the drive door or make sure the disk clicks into the drive. When we are ready, press ENTER. The following message appears:

Checking existing disk format Saving UNFORMAT information

As it formats the disk, MS-DOS displays the percentage of the disk that has been formatted.

When the format is complete, the following message appears:

Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)?

3. A volume label is a name for our disk. We can give our disk any name we like, as long as it has 11 or fewer characters. For this exercise, type practice and then press ENTER. Information similar to the following appears:

1213952 bytes total disk space 1213952 bytes available on disk 512 bytes in each allocation unit. 2371 allocation units available on disk. Volume Serial Number is lE49-15E2 Format another (Y/N)?

3. If we have another disk to format, press Y. If not, press N.