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1 perry 1 mformat
2 !!!mformat
3 Name
4 Note of warning
5 Description
6 Options
7 See Also
8 Viewing the texi doc
9 ----
10 !!Name
11
12
13 mformat - add an MSDOS filesystem to a low-level formatted floppy disk
14 !!Note of warning
15
16
17 This manpage has been automatically generated from mtools's
18 texinfo documentation, and may not be entirely accurate or
19 complete. See the end of this man page for
20 details.
21 !!Description
22
23
24 The mformat command is used to add an MS-DOS
25 filesystem to a low-level formatted diskette. Its syntax
26 is:
27
28
29 mformat [[-t ''cylinders''] [[-h
30 ''heads''] [[-n ''sectors''] [[-f
31 ''size''] [[-1] [[-4] [[-8]
32 [[-v ''volume_label''] [[-F] [[-S
33 ''sizecode''] [[-X] [[-2
34 ''sectors_on_track_0''] [[-3] [[-0
35 ''rate_on_track_0''] [[-A
36 ''rate_on_other_tracks''] [[-M
37 ''software_sector_size''] [[-N
38 ''serial_number''] [[-a] [[-C]
39 [[-H ''hidden_sectors''] [[-I
40 ''fsVersion''] [[-r ''root_sectors'']
41 [[-L ''fat_len''] [[-B
42 ''boot_sector''] [[-k] ''drive:''
43
44
45 Mformat adds a minimal MS-DOS filesystem (boot
46 sector, FAT, and root directory) to a diskette that has
47 already been formatted by a Unix low-level
48 format.
49
50
51 The following options are supported: (The S, 2, 1 and M
52 options may not exist if this copy of mtools has been
53 compiled without the USE_2M option)
54
55
56 The following options are the same as for Dos's format
57 command:
58 !!Options
59
60
61 v
62
63
64 Specifies the volume label. A volume label identifies the
65 disk and can be a maximum of 11 characters. If you omit the
66 -v switch, mlabel will assign no label to the
67 disk.
68
69
70 f
71
72
73 Specifies the size of the DOS filesystem to format. Only a
74 certain number of predefined sizes are supported by this
75 flag; for others use the -h/-t/-n flags. The following sizes
76 are supported:
77
78
79 160
80
81
82 160K, single-sided, 8 sectors per track, 40 cylinders (for 5
83 1/4 DD)
84
85
86 180
87
88
89 160K, single-sided, 9 sectors per track, 40 cylinders (for 5
90 1/4 DD)
91
92
93 320
94
95
96 320K, double-sided, 8 sectors per track, 40 cylinders (for 5
97 1/4 DD)
98
99
100 360
101
102
103 360K, double-sided, 9 sectors per track, 40 cylinders (for 5
104 1/4 DD)
105
106
107 720
108
109
110 720K, double-sided, 9 sectors per track, 80 cylinders (for 3
111 1/2 DD)
112
113
114 1200
115
116
117 1200K, double-sided, 15 sectors per track, 80 cylinders (for
118 5 1/4 HD)
119
120
121 1440
122
123
124 1440K, double-sided, 18 sectors per track, 80 cylinders (for
125 3 1/2 HD)
126
127
128 2880
129
130
131 2880K, double-sided, 36 sectors per track, 80 cylinders (for
132 3 1/2 ED)
133
134
135 t
136
137
138 Specifies the number of tracks on the disk.
139
140
141 h
142
143
144 The number of heads (sides).
145
146
147 n
148
149
150 Specifies the number of sectors per track. If the 2m option
151 is given, number of 512-byte sector equivalents on generic
152 tracks (i.e. not head 0 track 0). If the 2m option is not
153 given, number of physical sectors per track (which may be
154 bigger than 512 bytes).
155
156
157 1
158
159
160 Formats a single side (equivalent to -h 1)
161
162
163 4
164
165
166 Formats a 360K double-sided disk (equivalent to -f 360).
167 When used together with -the 1 switch, this switch formats a
168 180K disk
169
170
171 8
172
173
174 Formats a disk with 8 sectors per track.
175
176
177 MSDOS format's q, u and b options
178 are not supported, and s has a different
179 meaning.
180
181
182 The following options are specific to mtools:
183
184
185 F
186
187
188 Format the partition as FAT32.
189
190
191 S
192
193
194 The sizecode. The size of the sector is 2 ^ (sizecode +
195 7).
196
197
198 X
199
200
201 formats the disk as an XDF disk. See section XDF, for more
202 details. The disk has first to be low-level formatted using
203 the xdfcopy utility included in the fdutils package. XDF
204 disks are used for instance for OS/2 install
205 disks.
206
207
208 2
209
210
211 2m format. The parameter to this option describes the number
212 of sectors on track 0, head 0. This option is recommended
213 for sectors bigger than normal.
214
215
216 3
217
218
219 don't use a 2m format, even if the current geometry of the
220 disk is a 2m geometry.
221
222
223 0
224
225
226 Data transfer rate on track 0
227
228
229 A
230
231
232 Data transfer rate on tracks other than 0
233
234
235 M
236
237
238 software sector size. This parameter describes the sector
239 size in bytes used by the MS-DOS filesystem. By default it
240 is the physical sector size.
241
242
243 N
244
245
246 Uses the requested serial number, instead of generating one
247 automatically
248
249
250 a
251
252
253 If this option is given, an Atari style serial number is
254 generated. Ataris store their serial number in the OEM
255 label.
256
257
258 C
259
260
261 creates the disk image file to install the MS-DOS filesystem
262 on it. Obviously, this is useless on physical devices such
263 as floppies and hard disk partitions, but is interesting for
264 image files.
265
266
267 H
268
269
270 number of hidden sectors. This parameter is useful for
271 formatting hard disk partition, which are not aligned on
272 track boundaries (i.e. first head of first track doesn't
273 belong to the partition, but contains a partition table). In
274 that case the number of hidden sectors is in general the
275 number of sectors per cylinder. This is
276 untested.
277
278
279 I
280
281
282 Sets the fsVersion id when formatting a FAT32 drive. In
283 order to find this out, run minfo on an existing FAT32
284 drive, and mail me about it, so I can include the correct
285 value in future versions of mtools.
286
287
288 c
289
290
291 Sets the size of a cluster (in sectors). If this cluster
292 size would generate a FAT that too big for its number of
293 bits, mtools automatically increases the cluster size, until
294 the FAT is small enough.
295
296
297 r
298
299
300 Sets the size of the root directory (in sectors). Only
301 applicable to 12 and 16 bit FATs.
302
303
304 L
305
306
307 Sets the length of the FAT.
308
309
310 B
311
312
313 Use the bootsector stored in the given file or device,
314 instead of using its own. Only the geometry fields are
315 updated to match the target disks parameters.
316
317
318 k
319
320
321 Keep the existing boot sector as much as possible. Only the
322 geometry fields and other similar filesystem data are
323 updated to match the target disks parameters.
324
325
326 To format a diskette at a density other than the default,
327 you must supply (at least) those command line parameters
328 that are different from the default.
329
330
331 Mformat returns 0 on success or 1 on
332 failure.
333
334
335 It doesn't record bad block information to the Fat, use
336 mbadblocks for that.
337 !!See Also
338
339
340 Mtools' texinfo doc
341 !!Viewing the texi doc
342
343
344 This manpage has been automatically generated from mtools's
345 texinfo documentation. However, this process is only
346 approximative, and some items, such as crossreferences,
347 footnotes and indices are lost in this translation process.
348 Indeed, these items have no appropriate representation in
349 the manpage format. Moreover, not all information has been
350 translated into the manpage version. Thus I strongly advise
351 you to use the original texinfo doc. See the end of this
352 manpage for instructions how to view the texinfo
353 doc.
354
355
356 *
357
358
359 To generate a printable copy from the texinfo doc, run the
360 following commands:
361
362
363 __ ./configure; make dvi; dvips mtools.dvi
364 __
365
366
367 *
368
369
370 To generate a html copy, run:
371
372
373 __ ./configure; make html
374 __A premade html can be found at: `http://mtools.linux.lu' and also at: `http://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/mtools'
375
376
377 *
378
379
380 To generate an info copy (browsable using emacs' info mode),
381 run:
382
383
384 __ ./configure; make info
385 __
386
387
388 The texinfo doc looks most pretty when printed or as html.
389 Indeed, in the info version certain examples are difficult
390 to read due to the quoting conventions used in
391 info.
392 ----
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