PC Hardware in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Formatting a disc

After determining that the DVD-RAM drive is configured properly, the next step is to verify that the DVD writer can write to a disc. Formatting a disc is an easy test. To do that, we use the command mke2fs -c -v -b 2048 -m 0 /dev/scd1, where:

• mke2fs—creates a Linux second extended filesystem

• -c—checks for bad blocks

• -v—provides verbose output

• -b 2048—uses blocksize 2,048

• -m 0—reserves zero blocks for superuser

• /dev/scd1—the device to be formatted

After we issue that command, the DVD-RAM access light begins blinking, and the text shown in Example 12-8 appears.

Example 12-8. A verbose display when formatting a disc with mke2fs

[root@caldwell sbin]# ./mke2fs -c -v -b 2048 -m 0 /dev/scd1
mke2fs 1.27 (8-Mar-2002)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=2048 (log=1)
Fragment size=2048 (log=1)
304800 inodes, 1218960 blocks
0 blocks (0.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
75 block groups
16384 blocks per group, 16384 fragments per group
4064 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
        16384, 49152, 81920, 114688, 147456, 409600, 442368, 802816

Running command: badblocks -b 2048 -s /dev/scd1 1218960
Checking for bad blocks (read-only test): done
Writing inode tables: done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 35 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
[root@caldwell sbin]#

After the format completes and you mount the device, you can ...