Provided by: ntfs-3g_2013.1.13AR.1-2ubuntu2_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  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(-mb-only) 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 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 an other 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. 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 need help please try the Ntfsresize FAQ first (see
       below) and if you don't find your answer then send your question, comment or bug report to
       the development team:
       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:
       http://www.tuxera.com/community/

       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)