mkfs.ntfs man page on Debian

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MKNTFS(8)							     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 ] [ -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	blocks
       on  the device.	If omitted, mkntfs automagically figures the file sys‐
       tem 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
	      device.

   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  65536	 bytes
	      per  cluster.  If omitted, mkntfs uses 4096 bytes as the default
	      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 a default of 0
	      is used. Note that part-start-sect is required for Windows to be
	      able to boot from the created volume.

       -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
	      inode; 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.

       -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.

BUGS
       If  you	find  a bug please send an email describing the problem to the
       development team:
       linux-ntfs-dev@lists.sourceforge.net

AUTHORS
       mkntfs was written by Anton Altaparmakov, Richard Russon,  Erik	Sornes
       and Szabolcs Szakacsits.

AVAILABILITY
       mkntfs is part of the ntfsprogs package and is available from:
       http://www.linux-ntfs.org/content/view/19/37

       The manual pages are available online at:
       http://man.linux-ntfs.org/

SEE ALSO
       badblocks(8), ntfsprogs(8)

ntfsprogs 2.0.0			 January 2006			     MKNTFS(8)
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