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 ] [ -p part-start-sect ] [ -Q ]
       [ -q ] [ -S sectors-per-track ] [ -s sector-size ] [ -T ] [ -U ] [ -V ] [ -v ] [ -z  mft-zone-multiplier  ]  [  --debug	]  device  [  num-
       ber-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.

       -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
       -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 uses 4096 bytes as the default cluster size.

	      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).

       -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.

       -U, --with-uuid
	      Generate a random volume UUID.

       -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:
       ntfs-3g-devel@lists.sf.net

AUTHORS

       mkntfs was written by Anton Altaparmakov, Richard Russon, Erik Sornes and Szabolcs Szakacsits.  It was ported to ntfs-3g  by  Erik  Larsson
       and Jean-Pierre Andre.

AVAILABILITY

       mkntfs is part of the ntfs-3g package and is available from:
       http://www.tuxera.com/community/

SEE ALSO

       badblocks(8), ntfsprogs(8)

ntfs-3g 2012.1.15AR.5						   January 2006 							 MKNTFS(8)