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 filesystem to a low-level
17 formatted diskette. Its syntax is:
18 mformat [-t cylinders] [-h heads] [-n sectors]
20 [-f size] [-1] [-4] [-8]
21 [-v volume_label]
22 [-F] [-S sizecode] [-X]
23 [-2 sectors_on_track_0] [-3]
24 [-0 rate_on_track_0] [-A rate_on_other_tracks]
25 [-M software_sector_size]
26 [-N serial_number] [-a]
27 [-C] [-H hidden_sectors] [-I fsVersion]
28 [-r root_sectors] [-L fat_len]
29 [-B boot_sector] [-k]
30 [-m media_descriptor]
31 drive:
32 Mformat adds a minimal MS-DOS filesystem (boot sector, FAT, and root
35 directory) to a diskette that has already been formatted by a Unix low-
36 level format.
37 The following options are supported: (The S, 2, 1 and M options may not
39 exist if this copy of mtools has been compiled without the USE_2M
40 option)
41 The following options are the same as for Dos's format command:
43
45 v Specifies the volume label. A volume label identifies the disk
46 and can be a maximum of 11 characters. If you omit the -v
47 switch, mlabel will assign no label to the disk.
48 f Specifies the size of the DOS filesystem to format. Only a cer‐
50 tain number of predefined sizes are supported by this flag; for
51 others use the -h/-t/-n flags. The following sizes are sup‐
52 ported:
53 160 160K, single-sided, 8 sectors per track, 40 cylinders
55 (for 5 1/4 DD)
56 180 160K, single-sided, 9 sectors per track, 40 cylinders
58 (for 5 1/4 DD)
59 320 320K, double-sided, 8 sectors per track, 40 cylinders
61 (for 5 1/4 DD)
62 360 360K, double-sided, 9 sectors per track, 40 cylinders
64 (for 5 1/4 DD)
65 720 720K, double-sided, 9 sectors per track, 80 cylinders
67 (for 3 1/2 DD)
68 1200 1200K, double-sided, 15 sectors per track, 80 cylinders
70 (for 5 1/4 HD)
71 1440 1440K, double-sided, 18 sectors per track, 80 cylinders
73 (for 3 1/2 HD)
74 2880 2880K, double-sided, 36 sectors per track, 80 cylinders
76 (for 3 1/2 ED)
77 t Specifies the number of tracks on the disk.
79 h The number of heads (sides).
81 n Specifies the number of sectors per track. If the 2m option is
83 given, number of 512-byte sector equivalents on generic tracks
84 (i.e. not head 0 track 0). If the 2m option is not given, num‐
85 ber of physical sectors per track (which may be bigger than 512
86 bytes).
87 1 Formats a single side (equivalent to -h 1)
89 4 Formats a 360K double-sided disk (equivalent to -f 360). When
91 used together with -the 1 switch, this switch formats a 180K
92 disk
93 8 Formats a disk with 8 sectors per track.
95 MSDOS format's q, u and b options are not supported, and s has a dif‐
97 ferent meaning.
98 The following options are specific to mtools:
100 F Format the partition as FAT32.
102 S The sizecode. The size of the sector is 2 ^ (sizecode + 7).
104 X formats the disk as an XDF disk. See section XDF, for more
106 details. The disk has first to be low-level formatted using the
107 xdfcopy utility included in the fdutils package. XDF disks are
108 used for instance for OS/2 install disks.
109 2 2m format. The parameter to this option describes the number of
111 sectors on track 0, head 0. This option is recommended for sec‐
112 tors bigger than normal.
113 3 don't use a 2m format, even if the current geometry of the disk
115 is a 2m geometry.
116 0 Data transfer rate on track 0
118 A Data transfer rate on tracks other than 0
120 M software sector size. This parameter describes the sector size
122 in bytes used by the MS-DOS filesystem. By default it is the
123 physical sector size.
124 N Uses the requested serial number, instead of generating one
126 automatically
127 a If this option is given, an Atari style serial number is gener‐
129 ated. Ataris store their serial number in the OEM label.
130 C creates the disk image file to install the MS-DOS filesystem on
132 it. Obviously, this is useless on physical devices such as flop‐
133 pies and hard disk partitions, but is interesting for image
134 files.
135 H number of hidden sectors. This parameter is useful for format‐
137 ting hard disk partition, which are not aligned on track bound‐
138 aries (i.e. first head of first track doesn't belong to the par‐
139 tition, but contains a partition table). In that case the number
140 of hidden sectors is in general the number of sectors per cylin‐
141 der. This is untested.
142 I Sets the fsVersion id when formatting a FAT32 drive. In order
144 to find this out, run minfo on an existing FAT32 drive, and mail
145 me about it, so I can include the correct value in future ver‐
146 sions of mtools.
147 c Sets the size of a cluster (in sectors). If this cluster size
149 would generate a FAT that too big for its number of bits, mtools
150 automatically increases the cluster size, until the FAT is small
151 enough.
152 d Sets the number of FAT copies. Default is 2. This setting can
154 also be specified using the MTOOLS_NFATS environment variable.
155 r Sets the size of the root directory (in sectors). Only applica‐
157 ble to 12 and 16 bit FATs. This setting can also be specified
158 using the MTOOLS_DIR_LEN environment variable.
159 L Sets the length of the FAT.
161 B Use the bootsector stored in the given file or device, instead
163 of using its own. Only the geometry fields are updated to match
164 the target disks parameters.
165 k Keep the existing boot sector as much as possible. Only the
167 geometry fields and other similar filesystem data are updated to
168 match the target disks parameters.
169 m Use a non-standard media descriptor byte for this disk. The
171 media descriptor is stored at position 21 of the boot sector,
172 and as first byte in each FAT copy. Using this option may con‐
173 fuse DOS or older mtools version, and may make the disk unread‐
174 able. Only use if you know what you are doing.
175 To format a diskette at a density other than the default, you must sup‐
177 ply (at least) those command line parameters that are different from
178 the default.
179 Mformat returns 0 on success or 1 on failure.
181 It doesn't record bad block information to the Fat, use mbadblocks for
183 that.
184
186 Mtools' texinfo doc
187
189 This manpage has been automatically generated from mtools's texinfo
190 documentation. However, this process is only approximative, and some
191 items, such as crossreferences, footnotes and indices are lost in this
192 translation process. Indeed, these items have no appropriate represen‐
193 tation in the manpage format. Moreover, not all information has been
194 translated into the manpage version. Thus I strongly advise you to use
195 the original texinfo doc. See the end of this manpage for instructions
196 how to view the texinfo doc.
197 * To generate a printable copy from the texinfo doc, run the fol‐
199 lowing commands:
200 ./configure; make dvi; dvips mtools.dvi
202 * To generate a html copy, run:
206 ./configure; make html
208 A premade html can be found at: `http://mtools.linux.lu' and
210 also at: `http://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/mtools'
211 * To generate an info copy (browsable using emacs' info mode),
213 run:
214 ./configure; make info
216 The texinfo doc looks most pretty when printed or as html. Indeed, in
220 the info version certain examples are difficult to read due to the
221 quoting conventions used in info.
222mtools-3.9.10 28Feb05 mformat(1)