mkntfs

MKNTFS(8)                   System Manager's Manual                  MKNTFS(8)

NAME
       mkntfs - create an NTFS file system

SYNOPSIS
       mkntfs [options] device [number-of-sectors]

       mkntfs  [  -C ] [ -c cluster-size ] [ -F ] [ -f ] [ -H heads ] [ -h ] [
       -I ] [ -L volume-label ] [ -l ] [ -n ] [ -p part-start-sect ] [ -Q ]  [
       -q ] [ -S sectors-per-track ] [ -s sector-size ] [ -T ] [ -U ] [ -V ] [
       -v ] [ -z mft-zone-multiplier ] [ --debug ] device [  number-of-sectors
       ]

DESCRIPTION
       mkntfs  is  used  to  create an NTFS file system on a device (usually a
       disk partition) or file.  device is the special file  corresponding  to
       the device (e.g /dev/hdXX).  number-of-sectors is the number of sectors
       on the device. If omitted, mkntfs automagically figures the file system
       size.

OPTIONS
       Below  is a summary of all the options that mkntfs accepts.  Nearly all
       options have two equivalent names.  The short name is preceded by - and
       the long name is preceded by --.  Any single letter options, that don't
       take an argument, can be combined into a single command, e.g.   -fv  is
       equivalent  to  -f  -v.   Long  named options can be abbreviated to any
       unique prefix of their name.

   Basic options
       -f, --fast, -Q, --quick
              Perform quick (fast) format. This will skip both zeroing of  the
              volume and bad sector checking.

       -L, --label STRING
              Set the volume label for the filesystem.

       -C, --enable-compression
              Enable compression on the volume.

       -n, --no-action
              Causes  mkntfs  to not actually create a filesystem, but display
              what it would do if it were to create a filesystem. All steps of
              the  format are carried out except the actual writing to the de-
              vice.

   Advanced options
       -c, --cluster-size BYTES
              Specify the size of clusters in bytes. Valid cluster size values
              are  powers of two, with at least 256, and at most 2097152 bytes
              (2MB) per cluster. If omitted, mkntfs uses 4096 bytes as the de-
              fault cluster size.

              Note  that  the default cluster size is set to be at least equal
              to the sector size as a cluster cannot be smaller than a sector.
              Also,  note  that  values greater than 4096 have the side effect
              that compression is disabled on the volume (due  to  limitations
              in the NTFS compression algorithm currently in use by Windows).

       -s, --sector-size BYTES
              Specify  the  size of sectors in bytes. Valid sector size values
              are 256, 512, 1024, 2048 and 4096 bytes per sector. If  omitted,
              mkntfs  attempts  to determine the sector-size automatically and
              if that fails a default of 512 bytes per sector is used.

       -p, --partition-start SECTOR
              Specify the partition start sector. The  maximum  is  4294967295
              (2^32-1).    If    omitted,   mkntfs   attempts   to   determine
              part-start-sect automatically and if that fails or the value  is
              oversized,  a  default of 0 is used. The partition is usable de-
              spite a wrong value, however note that a correct part-start-sect
              is required for Windows to be able to boot from the created vol-
              ume.

       -H, --heads NUM
              Specify the number of heads. The maximum is 65535  (0xffff).  If
              omitted,  mkntfs attempts to determine the number of heads auto-
              matically and if that fails a default of 0 is  used.  Note  that
              heads  is  required for Windows to be able to boot from the cre-
              ated volume.

       -S, --sectors-per-track NUM
              Specify the number of sectors per track. The  maximum  is  65535
              (0xffff). If omitted, mkntfs attempts to determine the number of
              sectors-per-track automatically and if that fails a default of 0
              is  used. Note that sectors-per-track is required for Windows to
              be able to boot from the created volume.

       -z, --mft-zone-multiplier NUM
              Set the MFT zone multiplier, which determines the  size  of  the
              MFT  zone  to use on the volume. The MFT zone is the area at the
              beginning of the volume  reserved  for  the  master  file  table
              (MFT),  which  stores  the  on disk inodes (MFT records).  It is
              noteworthy that small files are stored entirely within  the  in-
              ode;  thus,  if  you  expect to use the volume for storing large
              numbers of very small files, it is useful to set the zone multi-
              plier  to  a higher value. Note, that the MFT zone is resized on
              the fly as required during operation  of  the  NTFS  driver  but
              choosing  a  good  value will reduce fragmentation. Valid values
              are 1, 2, 3 and 4. The values have the following meaning:

              +--------------------------------+
              |MFT zone     MFT zone size      |
              |multiplier   (% of volume size) |
              |    1        12.5% (default)    |
              |    2        25.0%              |
              |    3        37.5%              |
              |    4        50.0%              |
              +--------------------------------+

       -T, --zero-time
              Fake the time to be 00:00:00 UTC, Jan 1,  1970  instead  of  the
              current  system  time.  This is only really useful for debugging
              purposes.

       -U, --with-uuid
              Generate a random volume UUID.

       -I, --no-indexing
              Disable content indexing on the volume. (This is only meaningful
              on  Windows  2000  and  later. Windows NT 4.0 and earlier ignore
              this as they do not implement content indexing at all.)

       -F, --force
              Force mkntfs to run, even if the specified device is not a block
              special device, or appears to be mounted.

   Output options
       -q, --quiet
              Quiet execution; only errors are written to stderr, no output to
              stdout occurs at all. Useful if mkntfs is run in a script.

       -v, --verbose
              Verbose execution.

       --debug
              Really verbose execution; includes the verbose output  from  the
              -v  option  as  well  as  additional output useful for debugging
              mkntfs.

   Help options
       -V, --version
              Print the version number of mkntfs and exit.

       -l, --license
              Print the licensing information of mkntfs and exit.

       -h, --help
              Show a list of options with a brief description of each one.

KNOWN ISSUES
       When applying chkdsk to a file system, it sometimes  throws  a  warning
       "Correcting  errors  in the uppercase file." The uppercase file is cre-
       ated while formatting and it defines the mapping of lower case  charac-
       ters  to  upper case ones, as needed to sort file names in directories.
       The warning means that the uppercase file defined on the file system is
       not  the same as the one used by the Windows OS on which chkdsk is run-
       ning, and this may happen because newer versions of Windows  take  into
       account new characters defined by the Unicode consortium.

       Currently,  mkntfs  creates  the  uppercase table so that no warning is
       thrown by Windows Vista, Windows 7 or  Windows  8.  A  warning  may  be
       thrown by other Windows versions, or if chkdsk is applied in succession
       on different Windows versions.

BUGS
       If you find a bug please send an email describing the  problem  to  the
       development team:
       ntfs-3g-devel@lists.sf.net

AUTHORS
       mkntfs  was  written by Anton Altaparmakov, Richard Russon, Erik Sornes
       and Szabolcs Szakacsits.  It was ported to ntfs-3g by Erik Larsson  and
       Jean-Pierre Andre.

AVAILABILITY
       mkntfs is part of the ntfs-3g package and is available from:
       http://www.tuxera.com/community/

SEE ALSO
       badblocks(8), ntfsprogs(8)

ntfs-3g 2017.3.23AR.3            January 2006                        MKNTFS(8)