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 for-
matted 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 com-
piled without the USE_2M option)
The following options are the same as for Dos's format com-
mand:
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/-n 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.
User Commands mformat(1)
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 for-
matted using the xdfcopy utility included in the fdu-
tils 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 sec-
tor 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 physi-
cal 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 parti-
tion 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 clus-
ter 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
applicable 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 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
mkmanifest 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 approx-
imative, and some items, such as crossreferences, footnotes
and indices are lost in this translation process. Indeed,
these items have no appropriate representation in the man-
page 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 following commands:
./configure; make dvi; dvips mtools.dvi
* To generate a html copy, run:
./configure; make html
A premade html can be found at:
`http://mtools.linux.lu' and also at:
`http://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/mtools'
* 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.