View source for Fdformat

{{Lowercase title|title=fdformat}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022|cs1-dates=y}}
{{Use list-defined references|date=January 2022}}
'''Fdformat''' is the name of two unrelated programs, both performing "[[Disk formatting|low-level format]]" of [[floppy disk]]s.

== DOS tool ==
FDFORMAT is written by Christoph H. Hochstätter in [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]]. It allows users to format a floppy to a higher than usual density, enabling the user to store up to 300 [[kilobyte]]s more data on a normal high density 3.5" floppy disk. It also increases the speed of diskette I/O on these specially formatted disks using a technique called "Sector Sliding". In this technique, the physical sectors on the disk are ordered in such a way that when the drive advances to the next track, the next logical sector waiting to be read is immediately available to the read head.

== Linux tool ==
The Linux fdformat program works with the kernel floppy driver. It simply formats a floppy disk using whatever parameters is already known to the system.<ref>{{man|8|fdformat|Linux}}</ref> The {{code|setfdprm}} can be used to provide the system with unusual formatting parameters with which to format.<ref>{{man|8|setfdprm|Linux}}</ref>

Functionality similar to Hochstätter's FDFORMAT is provided by fdutils, written by Alain Knaff.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fdutils - Linux floppy tuning utilities |url=https://fdutils.linux.lu/}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Distribution Media Format|DMF]], a high-density diskette format used by Microsoft
* [[VGA-Copy]], a similar program that allowed higher floppy disk capacity
* [[IBM Extended Density Format|XDF]], a high-density diskette format used by IBM

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://ftp.sunet.se/mirror/archive/ftp.sunet.se/pub/simtelnet/msdos/diskutil/fdfrm18.zip FTP for the DOS tool, version 1.8, compiled .exe and Pascal sources]
* [https://github.com/christoh/fdformat GitHub christoh/fdformat]

[[Category:Floppy disk computer storage]]
[[Category:Linux file system-related software]]
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