# The &kfloppy; Formatter Handbook

Thad
McGinnis

    ctmcginnis@compuserve.com

Bernd
Johannes
Wuebben

    wuebben@math.cornell.edu

Developer
Lauri
Watts
Reviewer

    vampyr@atconnex.net

2000-12-14
1.03.00
2000
Thad McGinnis
&FDLNotice;

This Handbook describes &kfloppy; Formatter Version 1.3.0

KDE
kfloppy
floppy
format

## Introduction

&kfloppy; Formatter is a utility that provides a straightforward graphical means to format 3.5" and 5.25" floppy disks.

Make sure that your floppy is not mounted. &kfloppy; cannot format a mounted floppy.

## Using KFloppy

Starting &kfloppy; opens a single window by which the user may choose appropriate settings and control the formatting process. These options and controls are detailed below.

Make sure that your floppy is not mounted. &kfloppy; cannot format a mounted floppy.

### Control Settings

The settings are chosen by means of three drop down boxes located at the top left center of &kfloppy;.

#### Floppy Drive

Clicking on the top drop down box, which is labeled Floppy Drivefloppy>, offers the user the following four choices:

A: 3.5

  Choosing this item configures &kfloppy; to format a 3.5 inch floppy drive. The A: follows the MSDOS/Windows naming convention and corresponds to the `fd0` device in Linux. The 3.5 indicates that the floppy is the 3.5 inch type.

A: 5.25

  Choosing this item configures &kfloppy; to format a 5.25 inch floppy drive. The A: follows the MSDOS/Windows naming convention and corresponds to the `fd0` device in Linux. The 5.25 indicates that the floppy is the 5.25 inch type. This type is generally out of use and normally found only in older computers.

B: 3.5

  Choosing this item configures &kfloppy; to format a 3.5 inch floppy drive. The B: follows the MSDOS/Windows naming convention and corresponds to the `fd1` device in Linux. The 3.5 indicates that the floppy is the 3.5 inch type.

B: 5.25

  Choosing this item configures &kfloppy; to format a 5.25 inch floppy drive. The B: follows the MSDOS/Windows naming convention and corresponds to the `fd1` device in Linux. The 5.25 indicates that the floppy is the 5.25 inch type. This type is generally out of use and normally found only in older computers.

#### Density

The drop down box labeled Density offers the choice of two possible density settings. They are:

HD

  HD stands for High Density. This is the type commonly used today and so will most likely be the one chosen by most users.

DD

  DD stands for Double Density. This format is available mostly because some old diskettes and floppy disk drives require it. While the user may format a high density diskette in this manner it will reduce the storage space by one half. The following list of properties for each disk type and density combination should make that clear:

  - 3.5" DD: double-sided, 80 tracks, 9 sectors/track - 720K

  - 3.5" HD: double-sided, 80 tracks, 18 sectors/track - 1440K

  - 5.25" DD: double-sided, 40 tracks, 9 sectors/track - 360K

  - 5.25" HD: double-sided, 80 tracks, 15 sectors/track - 1200K

The 800k disk format used by Macintosh floppy drives cannot be supported on PC floppy drives since they are not capable of formatting disks in that fashion.

#### File Systems

The third drop down box, labeled File System, offers the user the following two choices:

Dos

  This selection will have &kfloppy; place the MSDOS/Windows type of file system on the diskette. The user will most likely want to choose this system if she or he will be using the diskette with those operating systems as they do not recognize other system types.

ext2fs

  This selection will have &kfloppy; place the type of file system on the diskette which is most commonly used with Linux. The user will likely want to choose this system if he or she will only be using the floppy with Linux.

### Formatting Options

Within 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.

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:

#### Formatting Method

&kfloppy; can format a disk in the following two ways:

Quick Erase

  This simply puts the new file system on the disk. All data on the disk is erased. If the density of the disk is different than the selected density, then the tracks and sectors on the disk will be reallocated before the file system is made.

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.

#### Verify on

The middle feature is the Verify on check box. This tells &kfloppy; to check that the formatting was correctly written to the floppy. This allows bad sectors to be identified.

#### Create Label

The bottom two features allow the user to add (or change) a label to the diskette. If the Create 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.

### The Buttons

There are four buttons located vertically along the right side of &kfloppy;. Starting at the bottom and going up they are:

Format

  This button initiates the formatting process. Once the user is sure that all the settings are correct he or she may begin the process by clicking on this button. Assuming that a diskette is in place and the parameters are set correctly, the user will see a few changes take place. The label on the button itself will change from Format to Abort indicating that another click on the button will stop the formatting. Furthermore, there will be a change in the two long rectangular boxes that span the bottom of &kfloppy;.

  The upper box is a status indicator that gives information about the process underway. As the formatting occurs it will contain specific details about the type of formatting. When &kfloppy; enters the verification stage of the process this will be displayed.

  The lower box is a progress bar. This displays both graphically and numerically the progress of first the formatting and then the verification. Before starting it appears to be empty - showing only the figure 0% in the center. As each process takes place the progress is tracked graphically as the box fills from left to right. At the same time the number in the center will increase reflecting the precise percentage of the process that has been completed.

  Make sure that your floppy is not mounted. &kfloppy; cannot format a mounted floppy.

Help

  This invokes the KDE help system starting at the &kfloppy; help pages (this document).

About

  This displays version and author information.

Quit

  Clicking on this button will close &kfloppy;.

## Command line options

Though &kfloppy; may most often be started from the KDE program menu, or a desktop icon, it can also be opened at the command line prompt of a terminal window. There are a few options that are available when doing this. They are:

`kfloppy `--help``

  This lists the most basic options available at the command line.

`kfloppy `--help-qt``

  This lists the options available for changing the way &kfloppy; interacts with Qt.

`kfloppy `--help-kde``

  This lists the options available for changing the way &kfloppy; interacts with KDE.

`kfloppy `--help-all``

  This lists all of the command line options.

`kfloppy `--author``

  Lists &kfloppy;'s author in the terminal window

`kfloppy `--version``

  Lists version information for Qt, KDE, and &kfloppy;. Also available through `kfloppy `-V``

## Credits and Licenses

&kfloppy; Formatter Program Copyright 2000 Bernd Johannes Wuebben wuebben@math.cornell.edu

Documentation Copyright 2000 by Thad McGinnis ctmcginnis@compuserve.com.

This version of the &kfloppy; Handbook is based on the original by David Rugge davidrugge@mindspring.com

&underFDL; &underGPL;

## Installation

&kfloppy; is packaged as part of the kdeutils package. For more information on installing and compiling KDE please see www.kde.org.