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mformat(1)							    mformat(1)

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 file system to a low-level
       formatted diskette. Its syntax is:

       mformat [-t cylinders|-T tot_sectors] [-h heads] [-s sectors]
	 [-f size] [-1] [-4] [-8]
	 [-v volume_label]
	 [-F] [-S sizecode]
	 [-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]
	 [-K backup_boot]
	 [-c clusters_per_sector]
	 [-d fat_copies]
	 [-X] [-2 sectors_on_track_0] [-3]
	 [-0 rate_on_track_0] [-A rate_on_other_tracks]
	 drive:

       Mformat adds a minimal MS-DOS file system (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 MS-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, mformat will assign no label to the disk.

       f      Specifies the size of the DOS file system to format. Only a cer‐
	      tain  number of predefined sizes are supported by this flag; for
	      others use the -h/-t/-s 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.

       T      Specifies	 the  number of total sectors on the disk. Only one of
	      these 2 options may be specified (tracks or total sectors)

       h      The number of heads (sides).

       s      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.

       MS-DOS 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 size code. 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 file system. 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 file system 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.

       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 applica‐
	      ble  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 boot sector 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 file system data are updated
	      to match the target disks parameters.

       K      Sets the sector number where  the	 backup	 of  the  boot	sector
	      should be stored (only relevant on FAT32).

       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 con‐
	      fuse DOS or older mtools version, and may make the disk  unread‐
	      able. Only use if you know what you are doing.

       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
       This manpage has been automatically  generated  from  mtools's  texinfo
       documentation.  However,	 this  process is only approximative, and some
       items, such as crossreferences, footnotes and indices are lost in  this
       translation process.  Indeed, these items have no appropriate represen‐
       tation in the manpage format.  Moreover, not all information  has  been
       translated into the manpage version.  Thus I strongly advise you to use
       the original texinfo doc.  See the end of this manpage for instructions
       how to view the texinfo doc.

       *      To  generate a printable copy from the texinfo doc, run the fol‐
	      lowing commands:

		     ./configure; make dvi; dvips mtools.dvi

       *      To generate a html copy,	run:

		     ./configure; make html

       A premade html can be found at `http://www.gnu.org/software/mtools/man‐
       ual/mtools.html'

       *      To  generate  an	info  copy (browsable using emacs' info mode),
	      run:

		     ./configure; make info

       The texinfo doc looks most pretty when printed or as html.  Indeed,  in
       the  info  version  certain  examples  are difficult to read due to the
       quoting conventions used in info.

mtools-4.0.18			    09Jan13			    mformat(1)
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