Formatting a New Disk

Abstract

Before using any new disks on a CP/M system, or any computer system for that matter, these disks have to be “formatted”. Formatting disks is the operation of preparing them to have data recorded on them and it is very similar to the operation of ruling lines to provide blank columns in a ledger. Because every computer system seems to have a different way of laying out its disks, they cannot be supplied ready formatted by the manufacturers. It is perhaps worth while at this stage, before going into how disks are formatted, to describe the layout of the disks used by typical microcomputer systems. At present there are three kinds of disk storage available: these are on 5–1/4 inch diameter floppy disks, 8 inch diameter floppy disks and the so-called “Winchester” or hard disks.