mformat(1)						      General Commands Manual							mformat(1)

Name
       mformat - add an MSDOS filesystem to a low-level formatted floppy disk

Note of warning
       This  manpage  has been automatically generated from mtools's texinfo documentation, and may not be entirely accurate or complete.  See the
       end of this man page for details.

Description
       The mformat command is used to add an MS-DOS file system to a low-level formatted diskette. Its syntax is:

       mformat [-t cylinders|-T tot_sectors] [-h heads] [-s sectors]
	 [-f size] [-1] [-4] [-8]
	 [-v volume_label]
	 [-F] [-S sizecode]
	 [-M software_sector_size]
	 [-N serial_number] [-a]
	 [-C] [-H hidden_sectors] [-I fsVersion]
	 [-r root_sectors] [-L fat_len]
	 [-B boot_sector] [-k]
	 [-m media_descriptor]
	 [-K backup_boot]
	 [-c clusters_per_sector]
	 [-d fat_copies]
	 [-X] [-2 sectors_on_track_0] [-3]
	 [-0 rate_on_track_0] [-A rate_on_other_tracks]
	 drive:

       Mformat adds a minimal MS-DOS file system (boot sector, FAT, and root directory) to a diskette that has already been formatted  by  a  Unix
       low-level format.

       The  following  options are supported: (The S, 2, 1 and M options may not exist if this copy of mtools has been compiled without the USE_2M
       option)

       The following options are the same as for MS-DOS's format command:

Options
       v      Specifies the volume label. A volume label identifies the disk and can be a maximum of 11 characters. If you  omit  the  -v  switch,
	      mformat will assign no label to the disk.

       f      Specifies  the size of the DOS file system to format. Only a certain number of predefined sizes are supported by this flag; for oth-
	      ers use the -h/-t/-s flags. The following sizes are supported:

	      160    160K, single-sided, 8 sectors per track, 40 cylinders (for 5 1/4 DD)

	      180    160K, single-sided, 9 sectors per track, 40 cylinders (for 5 1/4 DD)

	      320    320K, double-sided, 8 sectors per track, 40 cylinders (for 5 1/4 DD)

	      360    360K, double-sided, 9 sectors per track, 40 cylinders (for 5 1/4 DD)

	      720    720K, double-sided, 9 sectors per track, 80 cylinders (for 3 1/2 DD)

	      1200   1200K, double-sided, 15 sectors per track, 80 cylinders (for 5 1/4 HD)

	      1440   1440K, double-sided, 18 sectors per track, 80 cylinders (for 3 1/2 HD)

	      2880   2880K, double-sided, 36 sectors per track, 80 cylinders (for 3 1/2 ED)

       t      Specifies the number of tracks on the disk.

       T      Specifies the number of total sectors on the disk. Only one of these 2 options may be specified (tracks or total sectors)

       h      The number of heads (sides).

       s      Specifies the number of sectors per track. If the 2m option is given, number of 512-byte sector equivalents on generic tracks  (i.e.
	      not head 0 track 0).  If the 2m option is not given, number of physical sectors per track (which may be bigger than 512 bytes).

       1      Formats a single side (equivalent to -h 1)

       4      Formats a 360K double-sided disk (equivalent to -f 360). When used together with -the 1 switch, this switch formats a 180K disk

       8      Formats a disk with 8 sectors per track.

       MS-DOS format's q, u and b options are not supported, and s has a different meaning.

       The following options are specific to mtools:

       F      Format the partition as FAT32.

       S      The size code. The size of the sector is 2 ^ (sizecode + 7).

       X      formats  the  disk as an XDF disk. See section XDF, for more details. The disk has first to be low-level formatted using the xdfcopy
	      utility included in the fdutils package. XDF disks are used for instance for OS/2 install disks.

       2      2m format. The parameter to this option describes the number of sectors on track 0, head 0. This option is recommended  for  sectors
	      bigger than normal.

       3      don't use a 2m format, even if the current geometry of the disk is a 2m geometry.

       0      Data transfer rate on track 0

       A      Data transfer rate on tracks other than 0

       M      software	sector size. This parameter describes the sector size in bytes used by the MS-DOS file system. By default it is the physi-
	      cal sector size.

       N      Uses the requested serial number, instead of generating one automatically

       a      If this option is given, an Atari style serial number is generated.  Ataris store their serial number in the OEM label.

       C      creates the disk image file to install the MS-DOS file system on it. Obviously, this is useless on physical devices such as floppies
	      and hard disk partitions, but is interesting for image files.

       H      number  of  hidden  sectors.  This parameter is useful for formatting hard disk partition, which are not aligned on track boundaries
	      (i.e. first head of first track doesn't belong to the partition, but contains a partition table). In that case the number of  hidden
	      sectors is in general the number of sectors per cylinder. This is untested.

       I      Sets  the  fsVersion id when formatting a FAT32 drive.  In order to find this out, run minfo on an existing FAT32 drive, and mail me
	      about it, so I can include the correct value in future versions of mtools.

       c      Sets the size of a cluster (in sectors).	If this cluster size would generate a FAT that too big for  its  number  of  bits,  mtools
	      automatically increases the cluster size, until the FAT is small enough.

       d      Sets the number of FAT copies. Default is 2. This setting can also be specified using the MTOOLS_NFATS environment variable.

       r      Sets  the  size of the root directory (in sectors).  Only applicable to 12 and 16 bit FATs. This setting can also be specified using
	      the MTOOLS_DIR_LEN environment variable.

       L      Sets the length of the FAT.

       B      Use the boot sector stored in the given file or device, instead of using its own.  Only the geometry fields are updated to match the
	      target disks parameters.

       k      Keep the existing boot sector as much as possible.  Only the geometry fields and other similar file system data are updated to match
	      the target disks parameters.

       K      Sets the sector number where the backup of the boot sector should be stored (only relevant on FAT32).

       m      Use a non-standard media descriptor byte for this disk. The media descriptor is stored at position 21 of the  boot  sector,  and	as
	      first  byte  in each FAT copy. Using this option may confuse DOS or older mtools version, and may make the disk unreadable. Only use
	      if you know what you are doing.

       To format a diskette at a density other than the default, you must supply (at least) those command line parameters that are different  from
       the default.

       Mformat returns 0 on success or 1 on failure.

       It doesn't record bad block information to the Fat, use mbadblocks for that.

See Also
       Mtools' texinfo doc

Viewing the texi doc
       This  manpage  has  been automatically generated from mtools's texinfo documentation. However, this process is only approximative, and some
       items, such as crossreferences, footnotes and indices are lost in this translation process.  Indeed, these items have no appropriate repre-
       sentation  in  the manpage format.  Moreover, not all information has been translated into the manpage version.	Thus I strongly advise you
       to use the original texinfo doc.  See the end of this manpage for instructions how to view the texinfo doc.

       *      To generate a printable copy from the texinfo doc, run the following commands:

		     ./configure; make dvi; dvips mtools.dvi

       *      To generate a html copy,	run:

		     ./configure; make html

       A premade html can be found at `http://www.gnu.org/software/mtools/manual/mtools.html'

       *      To generate an info copy (browsable using emacs' info mode), run:

		     ./configure; make info

       The texinfo doc looks most pretty when printed or as html.  Indeed, in the info version certain examples are difficult to read due  to  the
       quoting conventions used in info.

mtools-4.0.18							      09Jan13								mformat(1)