Subject: Re: Creating MS-DOS filesystems
To: Matthias Scheler <tron@lyssa.owl.de>
From: Phil Knaack <flipk@idea.exnet.iastate.edu>
List: current-users
Date: 01/20/1997 20:43:55
>now that we finally have a working "fdformat" - good job, who ever did it -
>I would like to be able to create 3rd party especially MS-DOS filesystems,
>too. Am I wrong or is there no command for this job yet?

	To make DOS disks I usually keep an image lying around of a totally
empty formatted DOS disk (using 'dd').

		% dd if=/dev/fd0a | gzip | gzip > dos.gz.gz

[Amazingly, empty filesystems compress very well the second time.. from
1474560 bytes to 1995 to 641 bytes, for an empty MSDOS disk!]

	To create a DOS disk I would do:

		% cat dos.gz.gz | gunzip | gunzip | dd of=/dev/fd0a

	Actually, I often wonder about the need for such tools as DOS
formatters and filesystem checkers for UNIX; I mean, where does it stop?
Do we need a formatter for ext2fs? NTFS? DEC AdvFS?  =-)

CHeers,
Phil
--
Phillip F Knaack
Systems Administrator, Information Development for Extension Audiences (IDEA)
Iowa State University Extension