Provided by: ntfs-3g_2022.10.3-1.2ubuntu3_amd64 bug

NAME

       ntfsresize - resize an NTFS filesystem without data loss

SYNOPSIS

       ntfsresize [OPTIONS] --info(-mb-only) 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 Windows.  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 fit in a DEVICE  whose  desired
       size  is  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(-mb-only) and --size are omitted then the NTFS filesystem will be  enlarged
       to match 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 valuable 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
       notwithstanding 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 another existing partition.  You
       may enlarge upwards (first sector unchanged) or downwards (last sector unchanged), but you
       may not enlarge at both ends in a single step.  If you merge two NTFS partitions, only one
       of them can be expanded to the merged partition.  After you have enlarged  the  partition,
       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.

       -c, --check
              By  using  this  option  ntfsresize will only check the device to ensure that it is
              ready to be resized. If not, it will print any errors detected.  If the  device  is
              fine, nothing will be printed.

       -i, --info
              By  using this option without --expand, ntfsresize will determine the theoretically
              smallest shrunken filesystem size supported.  Most of the time the  result  is  the
              space already used on the filesystem. Ntfsresize 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.

              If used in association with option --expand, ntfsresize will determine the smallest
              downwards expansion size and the possible increments to the size. These  are  exact
              byte counts which must not be rounded.  This option may be used after the partition
              has been expanded provided the upper bound has not been changed.

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

       -m, --info-mb-only
              Like  the  info option, only print out the shrinkable size in MB.  Print nothing if
              the shrink size is the same as the original size (in MB).  This  option  cannot  be
              used in association with option --expand.

       -s, --size SIZE[k|M|G]
              Resize filesystem to fit in a partition whose size is SIZE[k|M|G] bytes by shifting
              its end and keeping its beginning unchanged. The filesystem size is set  to  be  at
              least  one  sector smaller than the partition.  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. ki=2^10, Mi=2^20 and Gi=2^30 are also
              allowed. Use this option with --no-action first.

       -x, --expand
              Expand the filesystem to the current partition size, shifting  down  its  beginning
              and  keeping its end unchanged. The metadata is recreated in the expanded space and
              no user data is relocated. This is incompatible with option -s (or --size) and  can
              only  be  made  if  the expanded space is an exact multiple of the cluster size. It
              must also be large enough to hold the new metadata.

              If the expansion is interrupted for  some  reason  (power  outage,  etc),  you  may
              restart the resizing, as the original data and metadata have been kept unchanged.

              Note  :  expanding  a Windows system partition and filesystem downwards may lead to
              the registry or some files not matching the new system layout, or to some important
              files  being  located  too  far  from  the  beginning of the partition, thus making
              Windows not bootable.

       -f, --force
              Forces ntfsresize to proceed with the resize operation either without prompting for
              an  explicit  acceptance,  or  if  the  filesystem is marked for consistency check.
              Double the option (-ff, --force --force) to avoid prompting even if the file system
              is marked for check.

              Please  note, ntfsresize always marks the filesystem for consistency 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 displays 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 find a bug please send an email describing the
       problem to the development team at:
       ntfs-3g-devel@lists.sf.net

       There are a few very rarely met restrictions at present: filesystems  having  unknown  bad
       sectors,  relocation  of  the  first MFT extent and resizing 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  multitudinous  partition  table  corruptions
       resulting  in  unbootable  Windows  systems, 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.  It was ported to ntfs-3g by Erik Larsson and Jean-Pierre Andre.

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 Granada for their continuous and highly valuable help,
       furthermore to Erik Meade, Martin Fick, Sandro Hawke, Dave  Croal,  Lorrin  Nelson,  Geert
       Hendrickx, Robert Bjorkman and Richard Burdick for beta testing the relocation 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 contributions and to Theodore Ts'o whose resize2fs(8) man  page  originally  formed
       the basis of this page.

AVAILABILITY

       ntfsresize is part of the ntfs-3g package and is available from:
       https://github.com/tuxera/ntfs-3g/wiki/

SEE ALSO

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