NAME
ntfsresize - resize an NTFS filesystem without data loss
SYNOPSIS
ntfsresize [OPTIONS] --info 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 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. Then 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.
-i, --info
By using this option 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.
This option never causes any changes to the filesystem, the
partition is opened read-only.
-s, --size SIZE[k|M|G]
Resize filesystem to SIZE[k|M|G] bytes. 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.
-f, --force
Forces ntfsresize to proceed with the resize operation even if
the filesystem is marked for consistency 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:
linux-ntfs-dev@lists.sourceforge.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.
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 ntfsprogs package and is available from:
http://www.linux-ntfs.org/content/view/19/37
The manual pages are available online at:
http://man.linux-ntfs.org/
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)