The Kfloppy Formatter Handbook
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# Chapter 2. 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.

# 2.1. Control Settings

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

## 2.1.1. 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.

## 2.1.2. 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.

## 2.1.3. 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.

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Introduction |  | Formatting Options