Supported Values for FORMAT /N and /T Switches (35766)



The information in this article applies to:
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.1
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.2
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.21
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.3
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.3a
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 4.0
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 4.01
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0a
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.0
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.2
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.21
    Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.22

This article was previously published under Q35766

SUMMARY

The FORMAT.COM utility supports two new switches, /N and /T. The /N switch allows you to specify the number of tracks on the disk to be formatted. Similarly, the /T switch allows you to specify the number of sectors per track on the disk to be formatted. You must use the /T and /N switches together; you cannot use them separately.

These are "open-ended" switches. That is, they do not work for all values, only values that are supported by the ROM BIOS of your system. Specifying a value that is not supported by the ROM BIOS results in the FORMAT.COM utility returning the error "parameters not supported."

Modification Type: Major Last Reviewed: 5/10/2003
Keywords: KB35766