MKNTFS(8)                                                            MKNTFS(8)



NAME
       mkntfs - create an NTFS file system on a device or file

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

       mkntfs  [  -C ] [ -c cluster-size ] [ -F ] [ -H heads ] [ -h ] [ -I ] [
       -L volume-label ] [ -l ] [ -n ] [ -p part-start-sect ] [ -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  partition)  or file.  device is the special file corresponding to
       the device (e.g /dev/sdXX).  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
       -L, --label STRING
              Set the volume label for the filesystem.

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

       -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.)

       -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:

              box; lB lB lB lB c l.  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.

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

       -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  ntfs-
       support@tuxera.com.

AUTHORS
       mkntfs was written by Anton Altaparmakov, Richard Russon, Szabolcs Sza‐
       kacsits, Jean-Pierre Andre, Tuxera Inc.  It was ported  to  ntfs-3g  by
       Erik Larsson and Jean-Pierre Andre.

AVAILABILITY
       mkntfs is part of the Tuxera NTFS package.



Tuxera NTFS Utilities 3015.11.10   Sept 2011                         MKNTFS(8)
