Commands Reference, Volume 2

eformat Command

Purpose

Formats an Itanium-based platform system partition.

Syntax

eformat [flags] -D hdisk_system_partition_file

Description

The eformat command formats an hdisk's system partition with a FAT (File Allocation Table) file system. Itanium-based platform machines use this file system type to contain system boot data.

Note: Formatting a system partition causes all data stored in the system partition to be lost.

Flags

-D hdisk_system_partition_file	Specifies the system partition the eformat command is to format. The system partition can be specified by its logical hdisk#_s0 name (for example `hdisk1_s0`) or its special file name /dev/hdisk1_s0. The command opens the specified system partition's special file name and format that partition.
-V volume_label	Specifies the 1 to 11 character volume label to be written to the system partition. This is an optional parameter.
-t file_system_type	Specifies the FAT file system type for the system partition. A type of 16 or 32 may be specified. This is an optional parameter. If the parameter is not specified, the eformat command determines the file system type depending on the size of the system partition.
-i	Specifies that the eformat command displays information about the file system after formatting the system partition. This is an optional parameter.

Examples

To format a system partition on hdisk1 and a disk partition index of 0, type:
```
eformat -D hdisk1_s0
```
To format a system partition on hdisk0 and a disk partition index of 0 with a FAT32 file system type, type:
```
 eformat -D hdisk0_s0 -t 32 
```

Files

/etc/sbin/eformat

Contains the eformat command

Related Information

The efdisk command.

EFI Disk Partitioning Overview inAIX 5L Version 5.1 Kernel Extensions and Device Support Programming Concepts.