jammy (8) mkntfs.8.gz

Provided by: ntfs-3g_2021.8.22-3ubuntu1_amd64 bug

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.
  1. L, –label STRING

Set the volume label for the filesystem.

  1. C, –enable-compression

Enable compression on the volume.

  1. 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 2097152 bytes (2MB) 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).
  1. 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.
  1. 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 despite a wrong
            value,  however  note  that a correct part-start-sect is required for Windows to be
            able to boot from the created volume.
  1. H, –heads NUM

Specify the number of heads. The maximum is 65535 (0xffff). If omitted, mkntfs

            attempts to determine the number of heads automatically and if that fails a default
            of 0 is used. Note that heads is required for Windows to be able to boot  from  the
            created volume.
  1. 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.
  1. 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 multiplier 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%              │
            └────────────────────────────────┘
  1. 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.
  1. U, –with-uuid

Generate a random volume UUID.

  1. 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.)
  1. 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.
  1. v, –verbose

Verbose execution.

  1. -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.
  1. l, –license

Print the licensing information of mkntfs and exit.

  1. 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 created while formatting and it defines the
     mapping of lower case  characters 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 running, 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:
     [email protected]

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:
     https://github.com/tuxera/ntfs-3g/wiki/

SEE ALSO

     badblocks(8), ntfsprogs(8)