ntfsresize man page on aLinux

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NTFSRESIZE(8)							 NTFSRESIZE(8)

NAME
       ntfsresize - resize an NTFS filesystem without data loss

SYNOPSIS
       ntfsresize [OPTIONS] --info DEVICE
       ntfsresize [OPTIONS] [--size SIZE[k|M|G]] DEVICE

DESCRIPTION
       The  ntfsresize program safely resizes Windows XP, Windows Server 2003,
       Windows 2000, Windows NT4 and Longhorn NTFS  filesystems	 without  data
       loss.  All  NTFS versions are supported, used by 32-bit and 64-bit Win‐
       dows.  Defragmentation is NOT required prior to	resizing  because  the
       program	 can  relocate	any  data  if  needed,	without	 risking  data
       integrity.

       Ntfsresize can be used to shrink or enlarge any NTFS filesystem located
       on  an  unmounted DEVICE (usually a disk partition). The new filesystem
       will have SIZE bytes.  The SIZE parameter may have one of the  optional
       modifiers  k,  M,  G, which means the SIZE parameter is given in kilo-,
       mega- or gigabytes respectively.	 Ntfsresize conforms to the  SI,  ATA,
       IEEE  standards	and the disk manufacturers by using k=10^3, M=10^6 and
       G=10^9.

       If both --info and --size are omitted then the NTFS filesystem will  be
       enlarged to the underlying DEVICE size.

       To  resize  a  filesystem  on  a	 partition,  you  must resize BOTH the
       filesystem and the partition by editing	the  partition	table  on  the
       disk.  Similarly	 to other command line filesystem resizers, ntfsresize
       doesn't manipulate the size of the partitions, hence  to	 do  that  you
       must  use  a  disk  partitioning	 tool  as  well, for example fdisk(8).
       Alternatively you could use one of the many user friendly  partitioners
       that  uses  ntfsresize internally, like Mandriva's DiskDrake, QTParted,
       SUSE/Novell's YaST Partitioner, IBM's EVMS, GParted or  Debian/Ubuntu's
       Partman.

       IMPORTANT!   It's  a good practice making REGULAR BACKUPS of your valu‐
       able data, especially before using ANY partitioning tools. To do so for
       NTFS,  you  could use ntfsclone(8).  Don't forget to save the partition
       table as well!

   Shrinkage
       If you wish to shrink an NTFS partition, first use ntfsresize to shrink
       the  size  of the filesystem. Then you could use fdisk(8) to shrink the
       size of the partition by deleting the partition and recreating it  with
       the  smaller size.  Do not make the partition smaller than the new size
       of NTFS otherwise you won't be able to boot. If	you  did  so  notwith‐
       standing then just recreate the partition to be as large as NTFS.

   Enlargement
       To  enlarge  an NTFS filesystem, first you must enlarge the size of the
       underlying partition. This can be done using fdisk(8) by	 deleting  the
       partition  and recreating it with a larger size.	 Make sure it will not
       overlap with an other existing partition.  Then	you may use ntfsresize
       to enlarge the size of the filesystem.

   Partitioning
       When  recreating	 the  partition by a disk partitioning tool, make sure
       you create it at the same starting sector and with the  same  partition
       type as before.	Otherwise you won't be able to access your filesystem.
       Use the 'u' fdisk command to switch to the reliable  sector  unit  from
       the default cylinder one.

       Also  make  sure	 you  set  the	bootable  flag for the partition if it
       existed before. Failing to do so you might not be  able	to  boot  your
       computer from the disk.

OPTIONS
       Below  is a summary of all the options that ntfsresize 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.

       -i, --info
	      By using this option ntfsresize will determine the theoretically
	      smallest	shrunken  filesystem  size supported. Most of the time
	      the result is the space already used on the filesystem.  Ntfsre‐
	      size  will  refuse shrinking to a smaller size than what you got
	      by this option and depending on  several	factors	 it  might  be
	      unable  to  shrink very close to this theoretical size. Although
	      the integrity of your data should be never in risk,  it's	 still
	      strongly recommended to make a test run by using the --no-action
	      option before real resizing.

	      Practically the smallest shrunken size generally	is  at	around
	      "used  space"  + (20-200 MB). Please also take into account that
	      Windows might need about 50-100  MB  free	 space	left  to  boot
	      safely.

	      This option never causes any changes to the filesystem, the par‐
	      tition is opened read-only.

       -s, --size SIZE[k|M|G]
	      Resize filesystem to SIZE[k|M|G] bytes.  The optional  modifiers
	      k,  M,  G	 mean  the  SIZE parameter is given in kilo-, mega- or
	      gigabytes respectively.  Conforming to standards, k=10^3, M=10^6
	      and G=10^9. Use this option with --no-action first.

       -f, --force
	      Forces  ntfsresize  to proceed with the resize operation even if
	      the filesystem is marked for consistency check.

	      Please note, ntfsresize always marks the filesystem for  consis‐
	      tency  check  before  a real resize operation and it leaves that
	      way for extra safety. Thus if NTFS was marked by ntfsresize then
	      it's  safe  to  use  this	 option. If you need to resize several
	      times without booting into Windows between each  resizing	 steps
	      then you must use this option.

       -n, --no-action
	      Use  this option to make a test run before doing the real resize
	      operation.  Volume will be opened read-only and ntfsresize  dis‐
	      plays  what  it  would  do  if it were to resize the filesystem.
	      Continue with the real resizing only if the test run passed.

       -b, --bad-sectors
	      Support disks having hardware errors,  bad  sectors  with	 those
	      ntfsresize would refuse to work by default.

	      Prior  using  this  option,  it's strongly recommended to make a
	      backup by ntfsclone(8) using the --rescue option,	 then  running
	      'chkdsk  /f /r volume:' on Windows from the command line. If the
	      disk guarantee is still valid then replace it.   It's  defected.
	      Please  also  note,  that	 no  software can repair these type of
	      hardware errors. The most what they can do is to work around the
	      permanent defects.

	      This option doesn't have any effect if the disk is flawless.

       -P, --no-progress-bar
	      Don't show progress bars.

       -v, --verbose
	      More output.

       -V, --version
	      Print the version number of ntfsresize and exit.

       -h, --help
	      Display help and exit.

EXIT CODES
       The exit code is 0 on success, non-zero otherwise.

KNOWN ISSUES
       No  reliability problem is known. If you need help please try the Ntfs‐
       resize FAQ first (see below) and if you don't  find  your  answer  then
       send your question, comment or bug report to the development team:
       linux-ntfs-dev@lists.sourceforge.net

       There  are  a  few very rarely met restrictions at present: filesystems
       having unknown bad sectors, relocation of the first MFT extent and  re‐
       sizing into the middle of a $MFTMirr extent aren't supported yet. These
       cases are detected and resizing is restricted to a  safe	 size  or  the
       closest safe size is displayed.

       Ntfsresize schedules an NTFS consistency check and after the first boot
       into Windows you must see chkdsk running on a blue background. This  is
       intentional  and	 no need to worry about it.  Windows may force a quick
       reboot after the consistency check.  Moreover after repartitioning your
       disk  and  depending on the hardware configuration, the Windows message
       System Settings Change may also appear. Just acknowledge it and	reboot
       again.

       The  disk geometry handling semantic (HDIO_GETGEO ioctl) has changed in
       an incompatible way in Linux 2.6 kernels and this triggered  multitudi‐
       nous  partition	table corruptions resulting in unbootable Windows sys‐
       tems, even if NTFS was consistent, if parted(8) was  involved  in  some
       way.  This  problem was often attributed to ntfsresize but in fact it's
       completely independent of NTFS  thus  ntfsresize.  Moreover  ntfsresize
       never  touches the partition table at all. By changing the 'Disk Access
       Mode' to LBA in the BIOS makes booting work again, most	of  the	 time.
       You  can	 find more information about this issue in the Troubleshooting
       section of the below referred Ntfsresize FAQ.

AUTHORS
       ntfsresize was written by Szabolcs Szakacsits, with contributions  from
       Anton Altaparmakov and Richard Russon.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
       Many  thanks  to Anton Altaparmakov and Richard Russon for libntfs, the
       excellent documentation and comments, to	 Gergely  Madarasz,  Dewey  M.
       Sasser and Miguel Lastra and his colleagues at the University of Grana‐
       da for their continuous and highly valuable help, furthermore  to  Erik
       Meade, Martin Fick, Sandro Hawke, Dave Croal, Lorrin Nelson, Geert Hen‐
       drickx, Robert Bjorkman and Richard Burdick for beta testing the	 relo‐
       cation  support,	 to  Florian  Eyben,  Fritz  Oppliger, Richard Ebling,
       Sid-Ahmed Touati, Jan Kiszka, Benjamin  Redelings,  Christopher	Haney,
       Ryan  Durk, Ralf Beyer, Scott Hansen, Alan Evans for the valued contri‐
       butions and to Theodore Ts'o whose  resize2fs(8)	 man  page  originally
       formed the basis of this page.

AVAILABILITY
       ntfsresize is part of the ntfsprogs package and is available from:
       http://www.linux-ntfs.org/content/view/19/37

       The manual pages are available online at:
       http://man.linux-ntfs.org/

       Ntfsresize  related news, example of usage, troubleshooting, statically
       linked binary and FAQ (frequently asked questions) are maintained at:
       http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html

SEE ALSO
       fdisk(8),  cfdisk(8),  sfdisk(8),  parted(8),  evms(8),	 ntfsclone(8),
       mkntfs(8), ntfsprogs(8)

ntfsprogs 1.13.1		 February 2006			 NTFSRESIZE(8)
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