MKNTFS(8)						      System Manager's Manual							 MKNTFS(8)

NAME

       mkntfs - create an NTFS file system

SYNOPSIS

       mkntfs [options] device [number-of-sectors]

       mkntfs  [  -C  ]  [  -c	cluster-size ] [ -F ] [ -f ] [ -H heads ] [ -h ] [ -I ] [ -L volume-label ] [ -l ] [ -n ] [ -N ntfs-version ] [ -p
       part-start-sect ] [ -Q ] [ -q ] [ -S sectors-per-track ] [ -s sector-size ] [ -T ] [ -V ] [ -v ] [ -z mft-zone-multiplier  ]  [	--debug  ]
       device [ number-of-sectors ]

DESCRIPTION

       mkntfs  is  used to create an NTFS file system on a device (usually a disk partition) or file.  device is the special file corresponding to
       the device (e.g /dev/hdXX).  number-of-sectors is the number of blocks on the device.  If omitted, mkntfs automagically	figures  the  file
       system size.

OPTIONS

       Below  is a summary of all the options that mkntfs accepts.  Nearly all options have two equivalent names.  The short name is preceded by -
       and the long name is preceded by --.  Any single letter options, that don't take an argument, can be combined into a single  command,  e.g.
       -fv is equivalent to -f -v.  Long named options can be abbreviated to any unique prefix of their name.

   Basic options
       -f, --fast, -Q, --quick
	      Perform quick (fast) format. This will skip both zeroing of the volume and bad sector checking.

       -L, --label STRING
	      Set the volume label for the filesystem.

       -C, --enable-compression
	      Enable compression on the volume.

       -c, --cluster-size BYTES
	      Specify  the  size of clusters in bytes. Valid cluster size values are powers of two, with at least 256, and at most 65536 bytes per
	      cluster. If omitted, mkntfs determines the cluster-size from the volume size. The value is determined as follows:

	      +----------------------------------------+
	      |Volume	size	  Default cluster size |
	      |0	- 512MB 	     512 bytes |
	      |512MB	- 1GB		    1024 bytes |
	      |1GB	- 2GB		    2048 bytes |
	      |2GB	+		    4096 bytes |
	      +----------------------------------------+

	      Note that the default cluster size is set to be at least equal to the sector size as a cluster cannot  be  smaller  than	a  sector.
	      Also,  note that values greater than 4096 have the side effect that compression is disabled on the volume (due to limitations in the
	      NTFS compression algorithm currently in use by Windows).

       -N, --ntfs-version STRING
	      Select the version of NTFS you wish to create.  This can be "1.2" (Windows NT 4.0) or "3.1" (Windows XP,	Server	2003  and  Vista).
	      Versions are upwards compatible and Windows 2000, which uses version "3.0", can read/write both.

	      If this option is omitted then version "3.1" is used.

       -n, --no-action
	      Causes  mkntfs to not actually create a filesystem, but display what it would do if it were to create a filesystem. All steps of the
	      format are carried out except the actual writing to the device.

   Advanced options
       -s, --sector-size BYTES
	      Specify the size of sectors in bytes. Valid sector size values are 256, 512, 1024, 2048 and  4096  bytes	per  sector.  If  omitted,
	      mkntfs attempts to determine the sector-size automatically and if that fails a default of 512 bytes per sector is used.

       -p, --partition-start SECTOR
	      Specify  the  partition  start  sector. The maximum is 4294967295 (2^32-1). If omitted, mkntfs attempts to determine part-start-sect
	      automatically and if that fails a default of 0 is used. Note that part-start-sect is required for Windows to be able  to	boot  from
	      the created volume.

       -H, --heads NUM
	      Specify  the  number of heads. The maximum is 65535 (0xffff). If omitted, mkntfs attempts to determine the number of heads automati-
	      cally and if that fails a default of 0 is used. Note that heads is required for Windows to be able to boot from the created volume.

       -S, --sectors-per-track NUM
	      Specify the number of sectors per track. The maximum is 65535 (0xffff). If omitted, mkntfs attempts to determine the number of  sec-
	      tors-per-track  automatically  and  if  that fails a default of 0 is used. Note that sectors-per-track is required for Windows to be
	      able to boot from the created volume.

       -z, --mft-zone-multiplier NUM
	      Set the MFT zone multiplier, which determines the size of the MFT zone to use on the volume. The MFT zone is the area at the  begin-
	      ning  of	the volume reserved for the master file table (MFT), which stores the on disk inodes (MFT records).  It is noteworthy that
	      small files are stored entirely within the inode; thus, if you expect to use the volume for storing  large  numbers  of  very  small
	      files,  it  is useful to set the zone multiplier to a higher value. Note, that the MFT zone is resized on the fly as required during
	      operation of the NTFS driver but choosing a good value will reduce fragmentation. Valid values are 1, 2, 3 and 4.  The  values  have
	      the following meaning:

	      +--------------------------------+
	      |MFT zone     MFT zone size      |
	      |multiplier   (% of volume size) |
	      |    1	    12.5% (default)    |
	      |    2	    25.0%	       |
	      |    3	    37.5%	       |
	      |    4	    50.0%	       |
	      +--------------------------------+

       -T, --zero-time
	      Fake  the  time  to  be 00:00:00 UTC, Jan 1, 1970 instead of the current system time.  This is only really useful for debugging pur-
	      poses.

       -I, --no-indexing
	      Disable content indexing on the volume. (This is only meaningful on Windows 2000 and later. Windows NT 4.0 and earlier  ignore  this
	      as they do not implement content indexing at all.)

       -F, --force
	      Force mkntfs to run, even if the specified device is not a block special device, or appears to be mounted.

   Output options
       -q, --quiet
	      Quiet execution; only errors are written to stderr, no output to stdout occurs at all. Useful if mkntfs is run in a script.

       -v, --verbose
	      Verbose execution.

       --debug
	      Really verbose execution; includes the verbose output from the -v option as well as additional output useful for debugging mkntfs.

   Help options
       -V, --version
	      Print the version number of mkntfs and exit.

       -l, --license
	      Print the licensing information of mkntfs and exit.

       -h, --help
	      Show a list of options with a brief description of each one.

BUGS

       If you find a bug please send an email describing the problem to the development team:
       linux-ntfs-dev@lists.sourceforge.net

AUTHORS

       mkntfs was written by Anton Altaparmakov, Richard Russon, Erik Sornes and Szabolcs Szakacsits.

AVAILABILITY

       mkntfs is part of the ntfsprogs package and is available from:
       http://www.linux-ntfs.org/content/view/19/37

       The manual pages are available online at:
       http://man.linux-ntfs.org/

SEE ALSO

       badblocks(8), ntfsprogs(8)

ntfsprogs 1.13.1						   January 2006 							 MKNTFS(8)