Provided by: ntfs-3g_2022.10.3-1ubuntu1_amd64 bug

NAME

       ntfsundelete - recover a deleted file from an NTFS volume.

SYNOPSIS

       ntfsundelete [options] device

DESCRIPTION

       ntfsundelete has three modes of operation: scan, undelete and copy.

   Scan
       The  default  mode,  scan  simply  reads an NTFS Volume and looks for files that have been
       deleted.  Then it will print a list giving the inode number, name and size.

   Undelete
       The undelete mode takes the files either matching the regular expression  (option  -m)  or
       specified  by  the  inode-expressions  and  recovers as much of the data as possible.   It
       saves the result to another location.  Partly for safety, but mostly  because  NTFS  write
       support isn't finished.

   Copy
       This  is  a  wizard's option.  It will save a portion of the MFT to a file.  This probably
       only be useful when debugging ntfsundelete

   Notes
       ntfsundelete only ever reads from the NTFS Volume.  ntfsundelete  will  never  change  the
       volume.

CAVEATS

   Miracles
       ntfsundelete cannot perform the impossible.

       When  a file is deleted the MFT Record is marked as not in use and the bitmap representing
       the disk usage is updated.  If the power isn't turned off  immediately,  the  free  space,
       where  the file used to live, may become overwritten.  Worse, the MFT Record may be reused
       for another file.  If this happens it is impossible to tell where the file was on disk.

       Even if all the clusters of a file are not in use, there is no guarantee that they haven't
       been overwritten by some short-lived file.

   Locale
       In  NTFS all the filenames are stored as Unicode.  They will be converted into the current
       locale for display by ntfsundelete.  The utility has successfully displayed  some  Chinese
       pictogram filenames and then correctly recovered them.

   Extended MFT Records
       In  rare  circumstances, a single MFT Record will not be large enough to hold the metadata
       describing a file (a file would have to be in hundreds of fragments for this  to  happen).
       In these cases one MFT record may hold the filename, but another will hold the information
       about the data.  ntfsundelete will not try and  piece  together  such  records.   It  will
       simply show unnamed files with data.

   Compressed and Encrypted Files
       ntfsundelete  cannot  recover  compressed  or encrypted files.  When scanning for them, it
       will display as being 0% recoverable.

   The Recovered File's Size and Date
       To recover a file ntfsundelete has to read the file's metadata.  Unfortunately, this isn't
       always intact.  When a file is deleted, the metadata can be left in an inconsistent state.
       e.g.  the file size may be zero; the dates of the file may be  set  to  the  time  it  was
       deleted, or random.
       To  be  safe ntfsundelete will pick the largest file size it finds and write that to disk.
       It will also try and set the file's date to the last modified date.  This date may be  the
       correct last modified date, or something unexpected.

OPTIONS

       Below  is a summary of all the options that ntfsundelete 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.

       -b, --byte NUM
              If  any  clusters of the file cannot be recovered, the missing parts will be filled
              with this byte.  The default is zeros.

       -C, --case
              When scanning an NTFS volume, any filename matching (using the --match  option)  is
              case-insensitive.  This option makes the matching case-sensitive.

       -c, --copy RANGE
              This wizard's option will write a block of MFT FILE records to a file.  The default
              file is mft which will be created in the current directory.   This  option  can  be
              combined with the --output and --destination options.

       -d, --destination DIR
              This  option  controls  where  to  put the output file of the --undelete and --copy
              options.

       -f, --force
              This will override some sensible defaults, such  as  not  overwriting  an  existing
              file.  Use this option with caution.

       -h, --help
              Show a list of options with a brief description of each one.

       -i, --inodes RANGE
              Recover  the  files  with these inode numbers.  RANGE can be a single inode number,
              several numbers separated by commas "," or a range separated by a dash "-".

       -m, --match PATTERN
              Filter the output by only looking for matching filenames.  The pattern can  include
              the  wildcards  '?',  match  exactly  one  character  or  '*',  match  zero or more
              characters.  By default the matching is case-insensitive.  To make the search  case
              sensitive, use the --case option.

       -O, --optimistic
              Recover parts of the file even if they are currently marked as in use.

       -o, --output FILE
              Use this option to set name of output file that --undelete or --copy will create.

       -P, --parent
              Display the parent directory of a deleted file.

       -p, --percentage NUM
              Filter  the  output  of  the  --scan  option, by only matching files with a certain
              amount of recoverable content.  Please read the caveats section for more details.

       -q, --quiet
              Reduce the amount of output to a minimum.  Naturally,  it  doesn't  make  sense  to
              combine this option with --scan.

       -s, --scan
              Search  through  an  NTFS volume and print a list of files that could be recovered.
              This is the default action of ntfsundelete.  This list can be filtered by filename,
              size,  percentage recoverable or last modification time, using the --match, --size,
              --percent and --time options, respectively.

              The output of scan will be:

              Inode  Flags  %age     Date    Time    Size  Filename
               6038  FN..    93%  2002-07-17 13:42  26629  thesis.doc

              ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
              │Flag   Description                      │
              │F/D    File/Directory                   │
              │N/R    (Non-)Resident data stream       │
              │C/E    Compressed/Encrypted data stream │
              │!      Missing attributes               │
              └────────────────────────────────────────┘

              The percentage field shows how much of the file can potentially be recovered.

       -S, --size RANGE
              Filter the output of the --scan option, by looking for a particular range  of  file
              sizes.   The  range  may be specified as two numbers separated by a '-'.  The sizes
              may be abbreviated using the  suffixes  k,  m,  g,  t,  for  kilobytes,  megabytes,
              gigabytes and terabytes respectively.

       -t, --time SINCE
              Filter  the  output  of the --scan option.  Only match files that have been altered
              since this time.  The time must be given as number using a suffix of d, w, m, y for
              days, weeks, months or years ago.

       -T, --truncate
              If ntfsundelete is confident about the size of a deleted file, then it will restore
              the file to exactly that size.  The default behaviour is to round up  the  size  to
              the nearest cluster (which will be a multiple of 512 bytes).

       -u, --undelete
              Select  undelete  mode.   You  can specify the files to be recovered using by using
              --match  or  --inodes  options.   This  option  can  be  combined  with   --output,
              --destination, and --byte.

              When  the file is recovered it will be given its original name, unless the --output
              option is used.

       -v, --verbose
              Increase the amount of output that ntfsundelete prints.

       -V, --version
              Show the version number, copyright and license for ntfsundelete.

EXAMPLES

       Look for deleted files on /dev/hda1.

              ntfsundelete /dev/hda1

       Look for deleted documents on /dev/hda1.

              ntfsundelete /dev/hda1 -s -m '*.doc'

       Look for deleted files between 5000 and 6000000 bytes, with  at  least  90%  of  the  data
       recoverable, on /dev/hda1.

              ntfsundelete /dev/hda1 -S 5k-6m -p 90

       Look for deleted files altered in the last two days

              ntfsundelete /dev/hda1 -t 2d

       Undelete inodes 2, 5 and 100 to 131 of device /dev/sda1

              ntfsundelete /dev/sda1 -u -i 2,5,100-131

       Undelete  inode number 3689, call the file 'work.doc', set it to recovered size and put it
       in the user's home directory.

              ntfsundelete /dev/hda1 -u -T -i 3689 -o work.doc -d ~

       Save MFT Records 3689 to 3690 to a file 'debug'

              ntfsundelete /dev/hda1 -c 3689-3690 -o debug

BUGS

       There are some small limitations to ntfsundelete, but currently no  known  bugs.   If  you
       find a bug please send an email describing the problem to the development team:
       ntfs-3g-devel@lists.sf.net

AUTHORS

       ntfsundelete  was  written  by  Richard Russon and Holger Ohmacht, with contributions from
       Anton Altaparmakov.  It was ported to ntfs-3g by Erik Larsson and Jean-Pierre Andre.

AVAILABILITY

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

SEE ALSO

       ntfsinfo(8), ntfsprogs(8)