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] [-n 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]
  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 cer-
    tain number of predefined sizes are supported by this flag; for
    others use the -h/-t/-n flags. The following sizes are sup-
    ported:

    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, num-
    ber 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 dif-
    ferent 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 sec-
    tors 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 gener-
    ated. 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 flop-
    pies and hard disk partitions, but is interesting for  image
    files.

    H   number of hidden sectors. This parameter is useful for format-
    ting hard disk partition, which are not aligned on track bound-
    aries (i.e. first head of first track doesn't belong to the par-
    tition, but contains a partition table). In that case the number
    of hidden sectors is in general the number of sectors per cylin-
    der. 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 ver-
    sions 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.

    r   Sets the size of the root directory (in sectors).  Only applica-
    ble to 12 and 16 bit FATs.

    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.

    To format a diskette at a density other than the default, you must sup-
    ply (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
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