• A command-line tool for Linux
  Linux
  Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
  
   that "low-level formats" a floppy disk.
• A DOS
  DOS
  DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
  
   tool written in Pascal by Christoph H. Hochstätter that allows users to format
  Disk formatting
  Disk formatting is the process of preparing a hard disk drive or flexible disk medium for data storage. In some cases, the formatting operation may also create one or more new file systems...
  
   floppy disk
  Floppy disk
  A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
  
  s to a higher than usual density, enabling the user to store up to 300 kilobyte
  Kilobyte
  The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
  
  s more data on a normal high density 3.5" floppy disk. It also increases the speed of diskette I/O on these specially formatted disks using a technique called "Sector Sliding". In this technique, the physical sectors on the disk are ordered in such a way that when the drive advances to the next track, the next logical sector waiting to be read is immediately available to the read head.

See also

• 2M
  2M (DOS)
  2M is a DOS program by the Spanish programmer Ciriaco García de Celis. It enables higher than normal capacity formatting of floppy disks. It saw active development from 1993 to 1995. The last version, v3.0, was released on March 6, 1995. It was written in C and assembler and compiled using Borland...
  
  , a similar program that offers even higher capacity
• DMF
  Distribution Media Format
  Distribution Media Format is a format for floppy disks that Microsoft used to distribute software. It allowed the disk to contain 1680 KB of data on a 3½-inch disk, instead of the standard 1440 KB. As a side effect, utilities had to specially support the format in order to read and write the...
  
  , a high-density diskette format used by Microsoft
• XDF
  IBM Extended Density Format
  The IBM eXtended Density Format is a way of formatting standard high-density 3.5" and 5.25" floppy disks to larger-than-standard capacities...
  
  , a high-density diskette format used by IBM

External links

• [ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/diskutil/fdfrm18.zip FTP for the DOS tool, version 1.8, compiled .exe and Pascal sources]
• Usage of the Bash command-line utility fdformat