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    #1

    Formatted disks?

    i was reading another thread in this Forum about the A: drive which reminded me of my own question which takes the cake for the stupidest question asked in this Forum in 2004. What's the difference between a formatted disk and a non-formatted disk? i bought a disk at my uni's computer lab and the guy's like - i'll give you a formatted one. i didn't know what the difference is, so i didn't say anything.

    What's the difference?

    Yes, i still live in the 18th century.
    Tags: None
    #2
    There is a piece of paper with lines across for you to write and then there is a plain peice of paper.... You can say one with the lines is formated.

    Comment

      #3
      -non-formatted disk don't have specfice structure for storing data.
      -while formatted disk have some structure defined for storing data.
      when you do
      #mke2fs /dev/fd0 ,/dev/hda
      then the floppy will be formatted with ext2 FS

      format means to give a form, shape.
      (like you give a format to letters, to make it decent)
      IBM PC formatted floppy HD 1.44 MB 3.5 inch
      the actual capacity of floppy is around about 2MB but is formatted upto 1.44MB.
      moving on to 21 century is good thing to do

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        #4
        Unless u get a built in floppy drive in ur PC, I would suggest using/buying iomega drive. The capacity of it is 100/200 & 750MB.

        Comment

          #5
          Abdali: very good answer

          Nadia_H,

          Abdali's answer is very good and simple..

          Tahir Kashmiri

          Comment

            #6
            Guys, stop trying to confuse nadia

            To rephrase some of the replies from this thread...

            A formatted disk has the structure in place to store data. A non-formatted disk does not.

            The reason why the distinction is made in stores is generally because different standards exist for data formatting. For example, a disk that is formatted for Microsoft operating systems may be unreadable on a computer running an Apple operating system.

            Let's now use the paper example.

            You go to a store, and you want to buy a sheet of paper to write a paragraph of English on. You might choose to buy the English "formatted" paper the store sells , with horizontal lines drawn on it, because English is written horizontally. You're now ready to write on the paper without having to do anything to it first.

            Your Chinese friend now wants to buy a sheet of paper to write a paragraph of Mandarin on. Mandarin is written in vertical colums, not horizontal lines. The store does not sell Mandarin "formatted" paper. So your friend buys some "unformatted" paper (a blank sheet), and "formats" it herself, drawing vertical lines on it. She is then ready to write on the paper.
            Muslims are so good at dividing that they can divide the atom. If you see two Muslims, probably they belong to 3 parties.
            Al-Ghazali

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              #7
              ^^

              cool

              Comment

                #8
                Nadia Sis.....

                THough.. Maddy has defined it Gr8


                In 18th Century Langugae...

                Its... sort of...

                U have a big Land.... Banjar wali... U cant live in it... TO live in it... U will need a PLOTATION... to Establish a COLONY..

                U will Make the Sectors.... ( Like In islamabad... Sectot G , H I etc ) then U will need to have Streets... and Then Plots .....

                When the Plots are marked... then... PPl can Build House on it...


                SO.......

                Unformated Disk is Like OPEN land... U cant Put DATA on it...

                When It Formated... It makes...Sectors... Tracks.... Clusters on it.. And... Ur data is stored in these CLUSTERS...

                Cluster Size vary along with the Type... FAT 12, FAT 16, or NTFS has Diff Cluster sizes... LIke.. In Colonies.. In some sectors U have 5 Marla Plots... In some 10 in some Kanal

                No.. I am not PROPETY DEALER
                FACE OF AN ~.~ANGEL~.~ APPETITE OF A VAMPIRE

                Comment

                  #9
                  If U need More Details Where the data is saved and.. its Detail.. Read the Fllowing

                  CLUSTER:

                  In personal computer storage technology, a cluster is the logical unit of file storage on a hard disk; it's managed by the computer's operating system. Any file stored on a hard disk takes up one or more clusters of storage. A file's clusters can be scattered among different locations on the hard disk. The clusters associated with a file are kept track of in the hard disk's file allocation table (FAT). When you read a file, the entire file is obtained for you and you aren't aware of the clusters it is stored in.

                  Since a cluster is a logical rather than a physical unit (it's not built into the hard disk itself), the size of a cluster can be varied. The maximum number of clusters on a hard disk depends on the size of a FAT table entry. Beginning with DOS 4.0, the FAT entries were 16 bits in length, allowing for a maximum of 65,536 clusters. Beginnning with the Windows 95 OSR2 service release, a 32-bit FAT entry is supported, allowing an entry to address enough clusters to support up to two terabytes of data (assuming the hard disk is that large!).

                  The tradeoff in cluster size is that even the smallest file (and even a directory itself) takes up the entire cluster. Thus, a 10-byte file will take up 2,048 bytes if that's the cluster size. In fact, many operating systems set the cluster size default at 4,096 or 8,192 bytes. Until the file allocation table support in Windows 95 OSR2, the largest size hard disk that could be supported in a single partition was 512 megabytes. Larger hard disks could be divided into up to four partitions, each with a FAT capable of supporting 512 megabytes of clusters.


                  BYe....
                  FACE OF AN ~.~ANGEL~.~ APPETITE OF A VAMPIRE

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Abdali, Fizion, Najim Bhai, Saqi, Digital Surgeon, MS, and Golden Scorpion

                    awwwwwwwwww. Thank you so much You had some really interesting ways of using examples to explain this to me; that really helped a doofus like me That really, really helped. Now i feel i understand the difference.

                    Thanks so much, everyone i know it's amazing that someone like me is still hanging around in the 21st century. i can't do fancy things with my disks [like all that /dir waghera stuff]. All i know is that they can save my papers, and when i'm done all i have to do is push a button and they come out

                    Thankoos.

                    Comment

                      #11
                      ^^ Yeh .... but maybe you should move from unreliable floppy disks to USB flash drives ... you'll be much happier ... believe me
                      Say: "Not equal are evil and good, even though the abundance of evil may please you." So fear Allah much, O men of understanding, in order that you may be successful. (Qur'aan, 5:100)

                      Comment

                        #12
                        Originally posted by nos:
                        .... USB flash drives ....
                        That sounds scary. Way too sophisticated for me

                        But thank you for the suggestion

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                          #13
                          5 inch floppy disks were also very cool.
                          -my sir gave usb pen drive to his friend as a gift

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