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 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)