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
       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)

ntfs-3g 2022.10.3                  June 2014                       NTFSWIPE(8)