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



NAME
       ntfsresize - resize an NTFS filesystem without data loss

SYNOPSIS
       ntfsresize [OPTIONS] --info(-mb-only) 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  DE‐
       VICE  (usually  a disk partition). The new filesystem will fit in a DEVICE whose desired size
       is 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 con‐
       forms 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(-mb-only) and --size are omitted then the NTFS filesystem will be enlarged to
       match 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 resiz‐
       ers, 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 be‐
       fore using ANY partitioning tools. To do so for NTFS, you could use ntfsclone(8).  Don't for‐
       get 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 another existing partition.  You  may  enlarge  up‐
       wards  (first sector unchanged) or downwards (last sector unchanged), but you may not enlarge
       at both ends in a single step.  If you merge two NTFS partitions, only one of them can be ex‐
       panded  to  the merged partition.  After you have enlarged the partition, you may use ntfsre‐‐
       size 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.

       -c, --check
              By using this option ntfsresize will only check the device to ensure that it is  ready
              to  be  resized.  If  not,  it will print any errors detected.  If the device is fine,
              nothing will be printed.

       -i, --info
              By using this option without --expand, 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.

              If used in association with option --expand, ntfsresize will  determine  the  smallest
              downwards expansion size and the possible increments to the size. These are exact byte
              counts which must not be rounded.  This option may be used  after  the  partition  has
              been expanded provided the upper bound has not been changed.

              This  option  never  causes  any  changes  to  the filesystem, the partition is opened
              read-only.

       -m, --info-mb-only
              Like the info option, only print out the shrinkable size in MB.  Print nothing if  the
              shrink  size  is the same as the original size (in MB).  This option cannot be used in
              association with option --expand.

       -s, --size SIZE[k|M|G]
              Resize filesystem to fit in a partition whose size is SIZE[k|M|G]  bytes  by  shifting
              its end and keeping its beginning unchanged. The filesystem size is set to be at least
              one sector smaller than the partition.  The optional modifiers k, M, G mean  the  SIZE
              parameter  is  given  in  kilo-, mega- or gigabytes respectively.  Conforming to stan‐
              dards, k=10^3, M=10^6 and G=10^9. ki=2^10, Mi=2^20 and Gi=2^30 are also  allowed.  Use
              this option with --no-action first.

       -x, --expand
              Expand  the  filesystem to the current partition size, shifting down its beginning and
              keeping its end unchanged. The metadata is recreated in the expanded space and no user
              data  is  relocated.  This  is incompatible with option -s (or --size) and can only be
              made if the expanded space is an exact multiple of the cluster size. It must  also  be
              large enough to hold the new metadata.

              If  the  expansion is interrupted for some reason (power outage, etc), you may restart
              the resizing, as the original data and metadata have been kept unchanged.

              Note : expanding a Windows system partition and filesystem downwards may lead  to  the
              registry  or some files not matching the new system layout, or to some important files
              being located too far from the beginning of the partition,  thus  making  Windows  not
              bootable.

       -f, --force
              Forces ntfsresize to proceed with the resize operation either without prompting for an
              explicit acceptance, or if the filesystem is marked for consistency check. Double  the
              option (-ff, --force --force) to avoid prompting even if the file system is marked for
              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 op‐
              tion.

       -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 find a bug please send an email describing the prob‐
       lem to the development team at:
       ntfs-3g-devel AT lists.net

       There are a few very rarely met restrictions at present: filesystems having unknown bad  sec‐
       tors,  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.  It was ported to ntfs-3g by Erik Larsson and Jean-Pierre Andre.

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

SEE ALSO
       fdisk(8), cfdisk(8), sfdisk(8), parted(8), evms(8), ntfsclone(8), mkntfs(8), ntfsprogs(8)



ntfs-3g 2021.8.22                             July 2013                                NTFSRESIZE(8)