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  sec‐
       tors-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  parti‐
       tion)  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  omit‐
       ted, 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 device.

   Advanced options
       -c, --cluster-size BYTES
              Specify the size of clusters in bytes. Valid cluster size values are pow‐
              ers  of two, with at least 256, and at most 2097152 bytes (2MB) per clus‐
              ter. 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  dis‐
              abled 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 despite a wrong value, however note  that  a  correct
              part-start-sect  is required for Windows to be able to boot from the cre‐
              ated volume.

       -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  Win‐
              dows to be able to boot from the created 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 sec‐
              tors-per-track is required for Windows to be able to boot from  the  cre‐
              ated 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  vol‐
              ume  reserved  for  the master file table (MFT), which stores the on disk
              inodes (MFT records).  It is noteworthy that small files are  stored  en‐
              tirely  within the inode; thus, if you expect to use the volume for stor‐
              ing large numbers of very small files, it is useful to set the zone  mul‐
              tiplier  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 sys‐
              tem 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 Win‐
              dows 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 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:
       ntfs-3g-devel@lists.sf.net

AUTHORS
       mkntfs  was  written  by Anton Altaparmakov, Richard Russon, Erik Sornes and Sz‐
       abolcs Szakacsits.  It was ported to ntfs-3g by Erik Larsson and Jean-Pierre An‐
       dre.

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)

Usage: mkntfs [options] device [number-of-sectors]

Basic options:
    -f, --fast                      Perform a quick format
    -Q, --quick                     Perform a quick format
    -L, --label STRING              Set the volume label
    -C, --enable-compression        Enable compression on the volume
    -I, --no-indexing               Disable indexing on the volume
    -n, --no-action                 Do not write to disk

Advanced options:
    -c, --cluster-size BYTES        Specify the cluster size for the volume
    -s, --sector-size BYTES         Specify the sector size for the device
    -p, --partition-start SECTOR    Specify the partition start sector
    -H, --heads NUM                 Specify the number of heads
    -S, --sectors-per-track NUM     Specify the number of sectors per track
    -z, --mft-zone-multiplier NUM   Set the MFT zone multiplier
    -T, --zero-time                 Fake the time to be 00:00 UTC, Jan 1, 1970
    -F, --force                     Force execution despite errors

Output options:
    -q, --quiet                     Quiet execution
    -v, --verbose                   Verbose execution
        --debug                     Very verbose execution

Help options:
    -V, --version                   Display version
    -l, --license                   Display licensing information
    -h, --help                      Display this help

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