ntfswipe

NTFSWIPE(8)                 System Manager's Manual                NTFSWIPE(8)

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 over-
       writing 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 hexadec-
              imal base.

       -c, --count NUM
              Define the number of times the unused space is to  be  overwrit-
              ten.  If  both options --bytes and --count are set, the space is
              repeatedly overwritten this number of times by each of the  val-
              ues 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 al-
              located because the allocations are always done  by  full  clus-
              ters.

       -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:
       http://www.tuxera.com/community/

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

ntfs-3g 2017.3.23AR.3              June 2014                       NTFSWIPE(8)