format —
how to format disks and tapes
Currently, there are no “native” NetBSD
  media formatting utilities. Formatting of both disks and cartridge tapes must
  be done either stand-alone or under HP-UX using the
  mediainit utility distributed by HP. Note that HP-brand
  cartridge tapes come pre-formatted, and HP disks are supposed to.
The format utility first appeared in
  4.4BSD.