1mformat(1) General Commands Manual mformat(1)
2
6 mformat - add an MSDOS filesystem to a low-level formatted floppy disk
7
11 This manpage has been automatically generated from mtools's texinfo
12 documentation, and may not be entirely accurate or complete. See the
13 end of this man page for details.
14
16 The mformat command is used to add an MS-DOS file system to a low-level
17 formatted diskette. Its syntax is:
18 mformat [-t cylinders|-T tot_sectors] [-h heads] [-s sectors]
20 [-f size] [-1] [-4] [-8]
21 [-v volume_label]
22 [-F] [-S sizecode]
23 [-M software_sector_size]
24 [-N serial_number] [-a]
25 [-C] [-H hidden_sectors] [-I fsVersion]
26 [-r root_sectors] [-L fat_len]
27 [-B boot_sector] [-k]
28 [-m media_descriptor]
29 [-K backup_boot]
30 [-c clusters_per_sector]
31 [-d fat_copies]
32 [-X] [-2 sectors_on_track_0] [-3]
33 [-0 rate_on_track_0] [-A rate_on_other_tracks]
34 drive:
35 Mformat adds a minimal MS-DOS file system (boot sector, FAT, and root
38 directory) to a diskette that has already been formatted by a Unix low-
39 level format.
40 The following options are supported: (The S, 2, 1 and M options may not
42 exist if this copy of mtools has been compiled without the USE_2M
43 option)
44 The following options are the same as for MS-DOS's format command:
46
48 v Specifies the volume label. A volume label identifies the disk
49 and can be a maximum of 11 characters. If you omit the -v
50 switch, mformat will assign no label to the disk.
51 f Specifies the size of the DOS file system to format. Only a cer‐
53 tain number of predefined sizes are supported by this flag; for
54 others use the -h/-t/-s flags. The following sizes are sup‐
55 ported:
56 160 160K, single-sided, 8 sectors per track, 40 cylinders
58 (for 5 1/4 DD)
59 180 160K, single-sided, 9 sectors per track, 40 cylinders
61 (for 5 1/4 DD)
62 320 320K, double-sided, 8 sectors per track, 40 cylinders
64 (for 5 1/4 DD)
65 360 360K, double-sided, 9 sectors per track, 40 cylinders
67 (for 5 1/4 DD)
68 720 720K, double-sided, 9 sectors per track, 80 cylinders
70 (for 3 1/2 DD)
71 1200 1200K, double-sided, 15 sectors per track, 80 cylinders
73 (for 5 1/4 HD)
74 1440 1440K, double-sided, 18 sectors per track, 80 cylinders
76 (for 3 1/2 HD)
77 2880 2880K, double-sided, 36 sectors per track, 80 cylinders
79 (for 3 1/2 ED)
80 t Specifies the number of tracks on the disk.
82 T Specifies the number of total sectors on the disk. Only one of
84 these 2 options may be specified (tracks or total sectors)
85 h The number of heads (sides).
87 s Specifies the number of sectors per track. If the 2m option is
89 given, number of 512-byte sector equivalents on generic tracks
90 (i.e. not head 0 track 0). If the 2m option is not given, num‐
91 ber of physical sectors per track (which may be bigger than 512
92 bytes).
93 1 Formats a single side (equivalent to -h 1)
95 4 Formats a 360K double-sided disk (equivalent to -f 360). When
97 used together with -the 1 switch, this switch formats a 180K
98 disk
99 8 Formats a disk with 8 sectors per track.
101 MS-DOS format's q, u and b options are not supported, and s has a dif‐
103 ferent meaning.
104 The following options are specific to mtools:
106 F Format the partition as FAT32.
108 S The size code. The size of the sector is 2 ^ (sizecode + 7).
110 X formats the disk as an XDF disk. See section XDF, for more
112 details. The disk has first to be low-level formatted using the
113 xdfcopy utility included in the fdutils package. XDF disks are
114 used for instance for OS/2 install disks.
115 2 2m format. The parameter to this option describes the number of
117 sectors on track 0, head 0. This option is recommended for sec‐
118 tors bigger than normal.
119 3 don't use a 2m format, even if the current geometry of the disk
121 is a 2m geometry.
122 0 Data transfer rate on track 0
124 A Data transfer rate on tracks other than 0
126 M software sector size. This parameter describes the sector size
128 in bytes used by the MS-DOS file system. By default it is the
129 physical sector size.
130 N Uses the requested serial number, instead of generating one
132 automatically
133 a If this option is given, an Atari style serial number is gener‐
135 ated. Ataris store their serial number in the OEM label.
136 C creates the disk image file to install the MS-DOS file system on
138 it. Obviously, this is useless on physical devices such as flop‐
139 pies and hard disk partitions, but is interesting for image
140 files.
141 H number of hidden sectors. This parameter is useful for format‐
143 ting hard disk partition, which are not aligned on track bound‐
144 aries (i.e. first head of first track doesn't belong to the par‐
145 tition, but contains a partition table). In that case the number
146 of hidden sectors is in general the number of sectors per cylin‐
147 der. This is untested.
148 I Sets the fsVersion id when formatting a FAT32 drive. In order
150 to find this out, run minfo on an existing FAT32 drive, and mail
151 me about it, so I can include the correct value in future ver‐
152 sions of mtools.
153 c Sets the size of a cluster (in sectors). If this cluster size
155 would generate a FAT that too big for its number of bits, mtools
156 automatically increases the cluster size, until the FAT is small
157 enough.
158 d Sets the number of FAT copies. Default is 2. This setting can
160 also be specified using the MTOOLS_NFATS environment variable.
161 r Sets the size of the root directory (in sectors). Only applica‐
163 ble to 12 and 16 bit FATs. This setting can also be specified
164 using the MTOOLS_DIR_LEN environment variable.
165 L Sets the length of the FAT.
167 B Use the boot sector stored in the given file or device, instead
169 of using its own. Only the geometry fields are updated to match
170 the target disks parameters.
171 k Keep the existing boot sector as much as possible. Only the
173 geometry fields and other similar file system data are updated
174 to match the target disks parameters.
175 K Sets the sector number where the backup of the boot sector
177 should be stored (only relevant on FAT32).
178 m Use a non-standard media descriptor byte for this disk. The
180 media descriptor is stored at position 21 of the boot sector,
181 and as first byte in each FAT copy. Using this option may con‐
182 fuse DOS or older mtools version, and may make the disk unread‐
183 able. Only use if you know what you are doing.
184 To format a diskette at a density other than the default, you must sup‐
186 ply (at least) those command line parameters that are different from
187 the default.
188 Mformat returns 0 on success or 1 on failure.
190 It doesn't record bad block information to the Fat, use mbadblocks for
192 that.
193
195 Mtools' texinfo doc
196
198 This manpage has been automatically generated from mtools's texinfo
199 documentation. However, this process is only approximative, and some
200 items, such as crossreferences, footnotes and indices are lost in this
201 translation process. Indeed, these items have no appropriate represen‐
202 tation in the manpage format. Moreover, not all information has been
203 translated into the manpage version. Thus I strongly advise you to use
204 the original texinfo doc. See the end of this manpage for instructions
205 how to view the texinfo doc.
206 * To generate a printable copy from the texinfo doc, run the fol‐
208 lowing commands:
209 ./configure; make dvi; dvips mtools.dvi
211 * To generate a html copy, run:
215 ./configure; make html
217 A premade html can be found at `http://www.gnu.org/software/mtools/man‐
219 ual/mtools.html'
220 * To generate an info copy (browsable using emacs' info mode),
222 run:
223 ./configure; make info
225 The texinfo doc looks most pretty when printed or as html. Indeed, in
229 the info version certain examples are difficult to read due to the
230 quoting conventions used in info.
231mtools-4.0.18 09Jan13 mformat(1)