NTFSRECOVER(8) System Manager's Manual NTFSRECOVER(8)
NAME
ntfsrecover - Recover updates committed by Windows on an NTFS volume
SYNOPSIS
ntfsrecover [options] device
DESCRIPTION
ntfsrecover applies to the metadata the updates which were requested on
Windows but could not be completed because they were interrupted by some
event such as a power failure, a hardware crash, a software crash or the
device being unplugged. Doing so, the file system is restored to a con-
sistent state, however updates to user data may still be lost.
Updating the file system generally requires updating several records
which should all be made for the file system to be kept consistent. For
instance, creating a new file requires reserving an inode number (set a
bit in a bit map), creating a file record (store the file name and file
attributes), and registering the file in a directory (locate the file
from some path). When an unfortunate event occurs, and one of these up-
dates could be done but not all of them, the file system is left incon-
sistent.
A group of updates which have all to be done to preserve consistency is
called a transaction, and the end of updates within a transaction is
called the commitment of the transaction.
To protect from unfortunate events, Windows first logs in a special file
all the metadata update requests without applying any, until the commit-
ment is known. If the event occurs before the commitment, no update has
been made and the file system is consistent. If the event occurs after
the update, the log file can be analyzed later and the transactions
which were committed can be executed again, thus restoring the integrity
of the file system.
ntfsrecover similarly examines the log file and applies the updates
within committed transactions which could not be done by Windows.
Currently, ntfs-3g does not log updates, so ntfsrecover cannot be used
to restore consistency after an unfortunate event occurred while the
file system was updated by Linux.
OPTIONS
Below is a summary of all the options that ntfsrecover accepts. The nor-
mal usage is to use no option at all, as most of these options are ori-
ented towards developers needs.
Nearly all options have two equivalent names. The short name is pre-
ceded by - and the long name is preceded by --. Any single letter op-
tions, that don't take an argument, can be combined into a single com-
mand, e.g. -bv is equivalent to -b -v. Long named options can be ab-
breviated to any unique prefix of their name.
-b, --backward
Examine the actions described in the logfile backward from the
latest one to the earliest one without applying any update. This
may encompass records generated during several sessions, and when
Windows is restarted, it often does not restart writing where it
ended the previous session, so this leads to errors and bad se-
quencing when examining the full log file.
-c, --clusters CLUSTER-RANGE
Restrict the output generated when using options -b -f -u -p to
the actions operating on a cluster within the given cluster
range. CLUSTER-RANGE is defined by the first and last cluster
numbers separated by a hyphen, for instance 100-109 or
0x3e8-0x3ff. A single number means restricting to a single clus-
ter. The first four log blocks have a special role and they are
always shown.
-f, --forward NUM
Examine the actions described in the logfile forward from the
first one to the last one without applying any update. As the log
file is reused circularly, the first one is generally not the
earliest. Moreover when Windows is restarted, it often does not
restart writing where it ended the previous sessions, and this
leads to errors when examining a log file generated during sev-
eral sessions.
-h, --help
Show some help information.
-k, --kill-fast-restart
When Windows has been interrupted with fast restart mode acti-
vated, part of pending changes are kept in the Windows cache and
only the same Windows version can recover them. This option can
be used to apply the changes recorded in the log file and drop
the ones in the Windows cache. This is dangerous and may cause
loss of data.
-n, --no-action
Do not apply any modification, useful when using the options -p,
-s or -u.
-p, --play COUNT
Undo COUNT transaction sets and redo a single one, a transaction
set being all transactions between two consecutive checkpoints.
This is useful for replaying some transaction in the past. As a
few actions are not undoable, this is not always possible.
-r, --range BLOCK-RANGE
Examine the actions described in the logfile forward restricted
to the requested log file block range without applying any up-
date. The first four log blocks have a special role and they are
always examined.
-s, --sync
Sync the file system by applying the committed actions which have
not been synced previously. This is the default option, used when
none of the options -n, -f, -r, -p and -u are present.
The option -s can be repeated to request applying the committed
actions mentioned in the obsolete restart page. This is useful
for testing the situations where the latest restart page cannot
be read though it can actually be read.
-t, --transactions COUNT
Display the transaction parameters when examining the log file
with one of the options --forward, --backward or --range.
-u, --undo COUNT
Undo COUNT transaction sets, thus resetting the file system to
some checkpoint in the past, a transaction set being all transac-
tions between two consecutive checkpoints. As a few actions are
not undoable, this is not always possible.
-v, --verbose
Display more debug/warning/error messages. This option may be
used twice to display even more information.
-V, --version
Show the version number, copyright and license of ntfsrecover.
EXAMPLES
Sync an NTFS volume on /dev/sda1.
ntfsrecover -s /dev/sda1
Display all actions which updated a cluster in range 100 to 119 :
ntfsrecover --verbose --backward --clusters=100-119 /dev/sda1
BUGS
If you find a bug please send an email describing the problem to the de-
velopment team:
ntfs-3g-devel@lists.sf.net
AUTHORS
ntfsrecover was written by Jean-Pierre Andre
AVAILABILITY
ntfsrecover is part of the ntfs-3g package and is available from:
https://github.com/tuxera/ntfs-3g/wiki/
SEE ALSO
ntfs-3g(8), ntfsfix(8), ntfsprogs(8)
ntfs-3g 2022.10.3 September 2015 NTFSRECOVER(8)
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