Hitachi FLASHMAX2 User Manual page 31

4. Format the drive
If this is a new Flash Drive or if you want to clear the user data, always use
the following procedure to format the drive. Formatting is done at a low level
on the Flash Drive, and is different from formatting performed by the OS.
Two modes are available for formatting: Maximum Capacity mode or Maximum
Performance mode. The Maximum Capacity mode is effective for applications
with intensive write, and the Maximum Performance mode requires a 15%
sacrifice in user capacity but can double the random write performance when
compared with the Maximum Capacity mode. (However, in terms of
performance in read and sequential write, there is no difference between the
two modes.) If the available capacity is large, the Maximum Performance
mode is recommended.
(1) Perform a low level formatting of the Flash Drive.
Below is an example of formatting in the Maximum Capacity mode.
vgc-config -d /dev/vgcx -m maxcapacity -n 1
* Use the vgc-monitor command to find out the x in"vgcx".
Example of formatting in the Maximum Performance mode:
vgc-config -d /dev/vgcx -m maxperformance -n 1
* Use the vgc-monitor command to find out the x in"vgcx".
For PCI slots with Flash Drives installed, their buses are assigned letters in the
following order: vgca, vgcb, vgcc, ...
(2) When the following message appears, enter yes and then press the Enter
key.
***WARNING:this operation will erase ALL data on the drive, type <yes> to
continue:
(3) The following message appears.
***Formatting drive. Please wait...***
(4) After the message disappears, it takes about 15 minutes for formatting to
finish at which time you can proceed to the next step.
(5) Create a file system.
Use the mkfs command to create a file system.
Example: mkfs -t ext4 -J size=400 /dev/vgcx0
* Use the vgc-monitor command to find out the x in "vgcx0".
Driver and Utility 3-15
PCIe Flash Drive FlashMAX2&3 User's Guide