mpartition(1)							 mpartition(1)



Name
       mpartition - partition an MSDOS hard disk



Note of warning
       This  manpage  has  been  automatically generated from mtoolss texinfo
       documentation, and may not be entirely accurate or complete.   See  the
       end of this man page for details.


Description
       The  mpartition	command is used to create MS-DOS filesystems as parti
       tions.  This is intended to be used on non-Linux systems, i.e.  systems
       where  fdisk  and  easy access to Scsi devices are not available.  This
       command only works on drives whose partition variable is set.

       mpartition -p drive
       mpartition -r drive
       mpartition -I [-B bootSector] drive
       mpartition -a drive
       mpartition -d drive
       mpartition -c [-s sectors] [-h heads]
       [-t cylinders] [-v [-T type] [-b
       begin] [-l length] [-f]



       Mpartition supports the following operations:

       p      Prints a command line to recreate the partition for  the	drive.
	      Nothing  is  printed  if	the  partition	for  the  drive is not
	      defined, or an inconsistency has been detected.  If verbose (-v)
	      is also set, prints the current partition table.

       r      Removes the partition described by drive.

       I      Initializes the partition table, and removes all partitions.

       c      Creates the partition described by drive.

       a      "Activates"  the	partition,  i.e.  makes it bootable.  Only one
	      partition can be bootable at a time.

       d      "Deactivates" the partition, i.e. makes it unbootable.

       If no operation is given, the current settings are printed.

       For partition creations, the following options are available:

       s sectors
	      The number of sectors per track of the partition (which is  also
	      the number of sectors per track for the whole drive).

       h heads
	      The  number  of heads of the partition (which is also the number
	      of heads for the whole drive).  By default, the geometry	infor
	      mation  (number of sectors and heads) is figured out from neigh
	      bouring partition table entries, or guessed from the size.

       t cylinders
	      The number of cylinders of the  partition  (not  the  number  of
	      cylinders of the whole drive.

       b begin
	      The  starting  offset of the partition, expressed in sectors. If
	      begin is not given, mpartition lets the partition begin  at  the
	      start of the disk (partition number 1), or immediately after the
	      end of the previous partition.

       l length
	      The size (length) of the partition, expressed  in  sectors.   If
	      end  is not given, mpartition figures out the size from the num
	      ber of sectors, heads and cylinders.  If	these  are  not  given
	      either,  it  gives the partition the biggest possible size, con
	      sidering disk size and start of the next partition.

       The following option is available for all operation  which  modify  the
       partition table:

       f      Usually, before writing back any changes to the partition, mpar
	      tition performs certain consistency checks, such as checking for
	      overlaps	and  proper  alignment	of  the partitions.  If any of
	      these checks fails, the partition table is not changes.  The  -f
	      allows you to override these safeguards.

       The following options are available for all operations:

       v      Together	with  -p  prints  the partition table as it is now (no
	      change operation), or as it is after it is modified.

       vv     If the verbosity flag is given twice, mpartition will print  out
	      a  hexdump of the partition table when reading it from and writ
	      ing it to the device.

       The following option is available for partition table initialization:

       B bootSector
	      Reads the template master boot record from file bootSector.


See Also
       Mtools texinfo doc

Viewing the texi doc
       This manpage has been automatically  generated  from  mtoolss  texinfo
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       items, such as crossreferences, footnotes and indices are lost in  this
       translation process.  Indeed, these items have no appropriate represen
       tation in the manpage format.  Moreover, not all information  has  been
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       the original texinfo doc.  See the end of this manpage for instructions
       how to view the texinfo doc.

       *      To  generate a printable copy from the texinfo doc, run the fol
	      lowing commands:

		     ./configure; make dvi; dvips mtools.dvi



       *      To generate a html copy,	run:

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	      A premade html can be  found  at:  http://mtools.linux.lu  and
	      also at: http://www.tux.org/pub/knaff/mtools

       *      To  generate  an	info  copy (browsable using emacs info mode),
	      run:

		     ./configure; make info



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mtools-3.9.10			    28Feb05			 mpartition(1)