NAME

       ntfswipe - overwrite unused space on an NTFS volume

SYNOPSIS

       ntfswipe [options] device

DESCRIPTION

       ntfswipe  clears  all or part of unused space on an NTFS volume by overwriting with zeroes
       or random bytes.

OPTIONS

       Below is a summary of all the options that ntfswipe 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.

       -a, --all
              Wipe all unused space. This may take significant time. If the option  --unused-fast
              (or -U) is also present, the faster wiping method is used.

       -b, --bytes BYTE-LIST
              Define  the  allowed  replacement  bytes  which are drawn randomly to overwrite the
              unused space. BYTE-LIST  is  a  comma-separated  list  of  values  in  range  0-255
              expressed in octal, decimal or hexadecimal base.

       -c, --count NUM
              Define  the  number of times the unused space is to be overwritten. If both options
              --bytes and --count are set, the space is repeatedly  overwritten  this  number  of
              times by each of the values in the list.

       -d, --directory
              Wipe all the directory indexes, which may contain names of deleted files.

       -f, --force
              This will override some sensible defaults, such as not using a mounted volume.  Use
              this option with caution.

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

       -i, --info
              Display details about unused space, without wiping anything.

       -l, --logfile
              Overwrite the logfile (update journal).

       -m, --mft
              Overwrite the unused space in the MFT (main file table,  which  contains  the  file
              names, and the contents of short files).

       -n, --no-action
              Executes the wiping process without writing to device.

       -p, --pagefile
              Overwrite the Windows swap space.

       -q, --quiet
              Suppress some debug/warning/error messages.

       -s, --undel
              Overwrite  the  space  which  had  been  allocated to a file which has been deleted
              recently and is still undeletable. This option is not compatible with  --bytes  and
              the replacement bytes are random ones or taken from a standard list.

       -t, --tails
              Overwrite  the space at the end of files which is unused, but allocated because the
              allocations are always done by full clusters.

       -u, --unused
              Overwrite the space which is currently not allocated to any file (but may have been
              used in the past).

       -U, --unused-fast
              Overwrite  the  space  which  is currently not allocated to any file, trying not to
              overwrite the space not written to since the previous wiping.

       -v, --verbose
              Display more debug/warning/error messages. This option may be used twice to display
              even more messages.

       -V, --version
              Show the version number, copyright and license of ntfswipe.

EXAMPLES

       Wipe out all unused space in an NTFS volume.

              ntfswipe -a /dev/sda1

       Wipe out all deleted file names from an NTFS volume.

              ntfswipe -dms /dev/sda1

BUGS

       There  are  no  known  problems  with  ntfswipe.   If  you find a bug please send an email
       describing the problem to the development team:
       ntfs-3g-devel@lists.sf.net

AUTHORS

       ntfswipe was written by Richard Russon, Anton Altaparmakov and  Yura  Pakhuchiy.   It  was
       ported to ntfs-3g by Erik Larsson.

AVAILABILITY

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

SEE ALSO

       ntfs-3g(8), ntfsls(8), ntfsprogs(8)