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 filesystem to a low-level
formatted diskette. Its syntax is:
mformat [-t cylinders] [-h heads] [-s sectors]
[-f size] [-1] [-4] [-8]
[-v volume_label]
[-F] [-S sizecode] [-X]
[-2 sectors_on_track_0] [-3]
[-0 rate_on_track_0] [-A rate_on_other_tracks]
[-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]
drive:
Mformat adds a minimal MS-DOS filesystem (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 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, mlabel will assign no label to the disk.
f Specifies the size of the DOS filesystem to format. Only a
certain number of predefined sizes are supported by this flag;
for others 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.
h The number of heads (sides).
n 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.
MSDOS 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 sizecode. 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 filesystem. By default it is the
physical 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 filesystem 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 bootsector 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 filesystem data are updated to
match the target disks parameters.
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
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