Identify the disks on a system.

If you are not sure of the types of disks on a system, use the format utility to identify the disk types.

How to Identify the Disks on a System

Format the disk.

Determine whether a disk is already formatted by using the format utility.

How to Determine if a Disk Is Formatted

In most cases, disks are already formatted. Use the format utility if you need to format a disk.

How to Format a Disk

Display slice information.

Display slice information by using the format utility.

How to Display Disk Slice Information

Label the disk.

Create the disk label by using the format utility.

How to Label a Disk

Examine the disk label.

Examine the disk label by using the prtvtoc command.

How to Examine a Disk Label

Recover a corrupted disk label.

You can attempt to recover a disk label that was damaged due to a system or power failure.

How to Recover a Corrupted Disk Label

Create a format.dat entry.

Create a format.dat entry to support a third-party disk.

How to Create a format.dat Entry

Automatically configure a SCSI disk.

You can automatically configure a SCSI disk with the SCSI-2 specification for disk device mode sense pages even if the specific drive type is not listed in the /etc/format.dat file.

How to Automatically Configure a SCSI Drive

Identify a defective disk sector.

Identify a defective disk sector by using the format utility.

How to Identify a Defective Sector by Using Surface Analysis

If necessary, fix a defective disk sector.

Fix a defective disk sector by using the format utility.

How to Repair a Defective Sector