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
              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 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.

       -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.

       -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 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%              │
              └────────────────────────────────┘

       -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  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 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)