mpartition(1) mtools-3.9.1 (10Jun98) mpartition(1)
Name
mpartition - partition an MSDOS hard disk
Note
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Description
The mpartition command is used to create MS-DOS filesystems
as partitions. 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 drive
mpartition-a drive mpartition-d drive mpartition-c [-s
sectors] [-h heads] [-t cylinders] [-v [-T type] [-b begin]
[-l length] [-f]
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mpartition(1) mtools-3.9.1 (10Jun98) mpartition(1)
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 "Desactivates" 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 information (number of sectors and heads) is
figured out from neighbouring 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 number of sectors, heads and
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cylinders. If these are not given either, it gives the
partition the biggest possible size, considering 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, mpartition performs certain consistenct
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 option is 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 writing it to the device.
See Also
Mtools' texinfo doc
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