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Steve Kondik79165c32015-11-09 19:43:00 -08001.\" Copyright (c) 2014 Jean-Pierre Andre
2.\" This file may be copied under the terms of the GNU Public License.
3.\"
4.TH NTFSWIPE 8 "June 2014" "ntfs-3g @VERSION@"
5.SH NAME
6ntfswipe \- overwrite unused space on an NTFS volume
7.SH SYNOPSIS
8\fBntfswipe\fR [\fIoptions\fR] \fIdevice\fR
9.SH DESCRIPTION
10.B ntfswipe
11clears all or part of unused space on an NTFS volume by overwriting
12with zeroes or random bytes.
13.SH OPTIONS
14Below is a summary of all the options that
15.B ntfswipe
16accepts. Nearly all options have two equivalent names. The short name is
17preceded by
18.B \-
19and the long name is preceded by
20.BR \-\- .
21Any single letter options, that don't take an argument, can be combined into a
22single command, e.g.
23.B \-fv
24is equivalent to
25.BR "\-f \-v" .
26Long named options can be abbreviated to any unique prefix of their name.
27.TP
28\fB\-a\fR, \fB\-\-all\fR
Steve Kondike68cb602016-08-28 00:45:36 -070029Wipe all unused space. This may take significant time. If the option
30\-\-unused-fast (or -U) is also present, the faster wiping method is used.
Steve Kondik79165c32015-11-09 19:43:00 -080031.TP
32\fB\-b\fR, \fB\-\-bytes\fR BYTE-LIST
33Define the allowed replacement bytes which are drawn randomly to overwrite
34the unused space. BYTE-LIST is a comma-separated list of values in
35range 0-255 expressed in octal, decimal or hexadecimal base.
36.TP
37\fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-count\fR NUM
38Define the number of times the unused space is to be overwritten.
39.TP
40\fB\-d\fR, \fB\-\-directory\fR
41Wipe all the directory indexes, which may contain names of deleted files.
42.TP
43\fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-force\fR
44This will override some sensible defaults, such as not using a mounted volume.
45Use this option with caution.
46.TP
47\fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-help\fR
48Show a list of options with a brief description of each one.
49.TP
50\fB\-i\fR, \fB\-\-info\fR
Steve Kondike68cb602016-08-28 00:45:36 -070051Display details about unused space, without wiping anything.
Steve Kondik79165c32015-11-09 19:43:00 -080052.TP
53\fB\-l\fR, \fB\-\-logfile\fR
54Overwrite the logfile (update journal).
55.TP
56\fB\-m\fR, \fB\-\-mft\fR
57Overwrite the unused space in the MFT (main file table, which contains the
58file names, and the contents of short files).
59.TP
60\fB\-n\fR, \fB\-\-no-action\fR
61Executes the wiping process without writing to device.
62.TP
63\fB\-p\fR, \fB\-\-pagefile\fR
64Overwrite the Windows swap space.
65.TP
66\fB\-q\fR, \fB\-\-quiet\fR
67Suppress some debug/warning/error messages.
68.TP
69\fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-undel\fR
70Overwrite the space which had been allocated to a file which has been deleted
71recently and is still undeletable.
72.TP
73\fB\-t\fR, \fB\-\-tails\fR
74Overwrite the space at the end of files which is unused, but allocated
75because the allocations are always done by full clusters.
76.TP
77\fB\-u\fR, \fB\-\-unused\fR
78Overwrite the space which is currently not allocated to any file (but
79may have been used in the past).
80.TP
81\fB\-U\fR, \fB\-\-unused-fast\fR
82Overwrite the space which is currently not allocated to any file, trying
83not to overwrite the space not written to since the previous wiping.
84.TP
85\fB\-v\fR, \fB\-\-verbose\fR
Steve Kondike68cb602016-08-28 00:45:36 -070086Display more debug/warning/error messages. This option may be used twice
87to display even more messages.
Steve Kondik79165c32015-11-09 19:43:00 -080088.TP
89\fB\-V\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR
90Show the version number, copyright and license of
91.BR ntfswipe .
92.SH EXAMPLES
93Wipe out all unused space in an NTFS volume.
94.RS
95.sp
96.B ntfswipe -a /dev/sda1
97.sp
98.RE
99Wipe out all deleted file names from an NTFS volume.
100.RS
101.sp
102.B ntfswipe -dms /dev/sda1
103.sp
104.RE
105.SH BUGS
106There are no known problems with
107.BR ntfswipe .
108If you find a bug please send an email describing the problem to the
109development team:
110.br
111.nh
112ntfs\-3g\-devel@lists.sf.net
113.hy
114.SH AUTHORS
115.B ntfswipe
116was written by Richard Russon, Anton Altaparmakov and Yura Pakhuchiy.
117It was ported to ntfs-3g by Erik Larsson.
118.SH AVAILABILITY
119.B ntfswipe
120is part of the
121.B ntfs-3g
122package and is available from:
123.br
124.nh
125http://www.tuxera.com/community/
126.hy
127.SH SEE ALSO
128.BR ntfs-3g (8),
129.BR ntfsls (8),
130.BR ntfsprogs (8)