mformat(1)

Name
mformat - add an MSDOS filesystem to a low-level formatted floppy disk

Note
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, this items have no appropriate representation in the manpage format. Moreover, only the items specific to each command have been translated, and the general information about mtools has been dropped in the manpage version. Thus I strongly advise you to use the original 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://linux.wauug.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.

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] [-l volume_label] [-F] [-I fsVersion] [-S sizecode] [-2 sectors_on_track_0] [-M software_sector_size] [-a] [-X] [-C] [-H hidden_sectors] [-r root_sectors] [-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)

Options

t   The number of cylinders.

h   The number of heads (sides).

s   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).

l   An optional volume label.

S   The sizecode. The size of the sector is 2 ^ (sizecode + 7).

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.

1   don't use a 2m format, even if the current geometry of the disk is a 2m geometry.

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.

a   If this option is given, an Atari style serial number is generated. Ataris store their serial number in the OEM label.

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.

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.

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.

n   serial number

F   Format the partition as FAT32 (experimental).

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.

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

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 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