Manual: ntfsclone
NTFSCLONE(8) System Manager's Manual NTFSCLONE(8)
NAME
ntfsclone - Efficiently clone, image, restore or rescue an NTFS
SYNOPSIS
ntfsclone [OPTIONS] SOURCE
ntfsclone --save-image [OPTIONS] SOURCE
ntfsclone --restore-image [OPTIONS] SOURCE
ntfsclone --metadata [OPTIONS] SOURCE
DESCRIPTION
ntfsclone will efficiently clone (copy, save, backup, restore) or rescue an NTFS filesystem to a sparse file, image,
device (partition) or standard output. It works at disk sector level and copies only the used data. Unused disk
space becomes zero (cloning to sparse file), encoded with control codes (saving in special image format), left unā
changed (cloning to a disk/partition) or filled with zeros (cloning to standard output).
ntfsclone can be useful to make backups, an exact snapshot of an NTFS filesystem and restore it later on, or for deā
velopers to test NTFS read/write functionality, troubleshoot/investigate users' issues using the clone without the
risk of destroying the original filesystem.
The clone, if not using the special image format, is an exact copy of the original NTFS filesystem from sector to
sector thus it can be also mounted just like the original NTFS filesystem. For example if you clone to a file and
the kernel has loopback device and NTFS support then the file can be mounted as
mount -t ntfs -o loop ntfsclone.img /mnt/ntfsclone
Windows Cloning
If you want to copy, move or restore a system or boot partition to another computer, or to a different disk or partiā
tion (e.g. hda1->hda2, hda1->hdb1 or to a different disk sector offset) then you will need to take extra care.
Usually, Windows will not be able to boot, unless you copy, move or restore NTFS to the same partition which starts
at the same sector on the same type of disk having the same BIOS legacy cylinder setting as the original partition
and disk had.
The ntfsclone utility guarantees to make an exact copy of NTFS but it won't deal with booting issues. This is by deā
sign: ntfsclone is a filesystem, not system utility. Its aim is only NTFS cloning, not Windows cloning. Hereby ntfsā
clone can be used as a very fast and reliable build block for Windows cloning but itself it's not enough.
Sparse Files
A file is sparse if it has unallocated blocks (holes). The reported size of such files are always higher than the
disk space consumed by them. The du command can tell the real disk space used by a sparse file. The holes are alā
ways read as zeros. All major Linux filesystem like, ext2, ext3, reiserfs, Reiser4, JFS and XFS, supports sparse
files but for example the ISO 9600 CD-ROM filesystem doesn't.
Handling Large Sparse Files
As of today Linux provides inadequate support for managing (tar, cp, gzip, gunzip, bzip2, bunzip2, cat, etc) large
sparse files. The only main Linux filesystem having support for efficient sparse file handling is XFS by the
XFS_IOC_GETBMAPX ioctl(2). However none of the common utilities supports it. This means when you tar, cp, gzip,
bzip2, etc a large sparse file they will always read the entire file, even if you use the "sparse support" options.
bzip2(1) compresses large sparse files much better than gzip(1) but it does so also much slower. Moreover neither of
them handles large sparse files efficiently during uncompression from disk space usage point of view.
At present the most efficient way, both speed and space-wise, to compress and uncompress large sparse files by common
tools would be using tar(1) with the options -S (handle sparse files "efficiently") and -j (filter the archive
through bzip2). Although tar still reads and analyses the entire file, it doesn't pass on the large data blocks havā
ing only zeros to filters and it also avoids writing large amount of zeros to the disk needlessly. But since tar
can't create an archive from the standard input, you can't do this in-place by just reading ntfsclone standard outā
put. Even more sadly, using the -S option results serious data loss since the end of 2004 and the GNU tar maintainers
didn't release fixed versions until the present day.
The Special Image Format
It's also possible, actually it's recommended, to save an NTFS filesystem to a special image format. Instead of repā
resenting unallocated blocks as holes, they are encoded using control codes. Thus, the image saves space without reā
quiring sparse file support. The image format is ideal for streaming filesystem images over the network and similar,
and can be used as a replacement for Ghost or Partition Image if it is combined with other tools. The downside is
that you can't mount the image directly, you need to restore it first.
To save an image using the special image format, use the -s or the --save-image option. To restore an image, use the
-r or the --restore-image option. Note that you can restore images from standard input by using '-' as the SOURCE
file.
Metadata-only Cloning
One of the features of ntfsclone is that, it can also save only the NTFS metadata using the option -m or --metadata
and the clone still will be mountable. In this case all non-metadata file content will be lost and reading them back
will result always zeros.
The metadata-only image can be compressed very well, usually to not more than 1-8 MB thus it's easy to transfer for
investigation, troubleshooting.
In this mode of ntfsclone, NONE of the user's data is saved, including the resident user's data embedded into metaā
data. All is filled with zeros. Moreover all the file timestamps, deleted and unused spaces inside the metadata are
filled with zeros. Thus this mode is inappropriate for example for forensic analyses. This mode may be combined with
--save-image to create a special image format file instead of a sparse file.
Please note, filenames are not wiped out. They might contain sensitive information, so think twice before sending
such an image to anybody.
OPTIONS
Below is a summary of all the options that ntfsclone 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 arā
gument, can be combined into a single command, e.g. -fv is equivalent to -f -v . Long named options can be abbreviā
ated to any unique prefix of their name.
-o, --output FILE
Clone NTFS to the non-existent FILE. If FILE is '-' then clone to the standard output. This option cannot be
used for creating a partition, use --overwrite for an existing partition.
-O, --overwrite FILE
Clone NTFS to FILE, which can be an existing partition or a regular file which will be overwritten if it exā
ists.
-s, --save-image
Save to the special image format. This is the most efficient way space and speed-wise if imaging is done to
the standard output, e.g. for image compression, encryption or streaming through a network.
-r, --restore-image
Restore from the special image format specified by SOURCE argument. If the SOURCE is '-' then the image is
read from the standard input.
-n, --no-action
Test the consistency of a saved image by simulating its restoring without writing anything. The NTFS data conā
tained in the image is not tested. The option --restore-image must also be present, and the options --output
and --overwrite must be omitted.
--rescue
Ignore disk read errors so disks having bad sectors, e.g. dying disks, can be rescued the most efficiently
way, with minimal stress on them. Ntfsclone works at the lowest, sector level in this mode too thus more data
can be rescued. The contents of the unreadable sectors are filled by character '?' and the beginning of such
sectors are marked by "BadSectoR\0".
-m, --metadata
Clone ONLY METADATA (for NTFS experts). Only cloning to a (sparse) file is allowed, unless used the option
--save-image is also used. You can't metadata-only clone to a device.
--ignore-fs-check
Ignore the result of the filesystem consistency check. This option is allowed to be used only with the --metaā
data option, for the safety of user's data. The clusters which cause the inconsistency are saved too.
-t, --preserve-timestamps
Do not wipe the timestamps, to be used only with the --metadata option.
--full-logfile
Include the Windows log file in the copy. This is only useful for extracting metadata, saving or cloning a
file system which was not properly unmounted from Windows.
--new-serial, or
--new-half-serial
Set a new random serial number to the clone. The serial number is a 64 bit number used to identify the device
during the mounting process, so it has to be changed to enable the original file system and the clone to be
mounted at the same time on the same computer.
The option --new-half-serial only changes the upper part of the serial number, keeping the lower part which is
used by Windows unchanged.
The options --new-serial and --new-half-serial can only be used when cloning a file system of restoring from
an image.
The serial number is not the volume UUID used by Windows to locate files which have been moved to another volā
ume.
-f, --force
Forces ntfsclone to proceed if the filesystem is marked "dirty" for consistency check.
-q, --quiet
Do not display any progress-bars during operation.
-h, --help
Show a list of options with a brief description of each one.
EXIT CODES
The exit code is 0 on success, non-zero otherwise.
EXAMPLES
Clone NTFS on /dev/hda1 to /dev/hdc1:
ntfsclone --overwrite /dev/hdc1 /dev/hda1
Save an NTFS to a file in the special image format:
ntfsclone --save-image --output backup.img /dev/hda1
Restore an NTFS from a special image file to its original partition:
ntfsclone --restore-image --overwrite /dev/hda1 backup.img
Save an NTFS into a compressed image file:
ntfsclone --save-image -o - /dev/hda1 | gzip -c > backup.img.gz
Restore an NTFS volume from a compressed image file:
gunzip -c backup.img.gz | \
ntfsclone --restore-image --overwrite /dev/hda1 -
Backup an NTFS volume to a remote host, using ssh. Please note, that ssh may ask for a password!
ntfsclone --save-image --output - /dev/hda1 | \
gzip -c | ssh host 'cat > backup.img.gz'
Restore an NTFS volume from a remote host via ssh. Please note, that ssh may ask for a password!
ssh host 'cat backup.img.gz' | gunzip -c | \
ntfsclone --restore-image --overwrite /dev/hda1 -
Stream an image file from a web server and restore it to a partition:
wget -qO - http://server/backup.img | \
ntfsclone --restore-image --overwrite /dev/hda1 -
Clone an NTFS volume to a non-existent file:
ntfsclone --output ntfs-clone.img /dev/hda1
Pack NTFS metadata for NTFS experts. Please note that bzip2 runs very long but results usually at least 10 times
smaller archives than gzip on a sparse file.
ntfsclone --metadata --output ntfsmeta.img /dev/hda1
bzip2 ntfsmeta.img
Or, outputting to a compressed image :
ntfsclone -mst --output - /dev/hda1 | bzip2 > ntfsmeta.bz2
Unpacking NTFS metadata into a sparse file:
bunzip2 -c ntfsmeta.img.bz2 | \
cp --sparse=always /proc/self/fd/0 ntfsmeta.img
KNOWN ISSUES
There are no known problems with ntfsclone. If you think you have found a problem then please send an email describā
ing it to the development team: ntfs-3g-devel@lists.sf.net
Sometimes it might appear ntfsclone froze if the clone is on ReiserFS and even CTRL-C won't stop it. This is not a
bug in ntfsclone, however it's due to ReiserFS being extremely inefficient creating large sparse files and not hanā
dling signals during this operation. This ReiserFS problem was improved in kernel 2.4.22. XFS, JFS and ext3 don't
have this problem.
AUTHORS
ntfsclone was written by Szabolcs Szakacsits with contributions from Per Olofsson (special image format support) and
Anton Altaparmakov. It was ported to ntfs-3g by Erik Larsson and Jean-Pierre Andre.
AVAILABILITY
ntfsclone is part of the ntfs-3g package and is available at:
https://github.com/tuxera/ntfs-3g/wiki/
SEE ALSO
ntfsresize(8) ntfsprogs(8) xfs_copy(8) debugreiserfs(8) e2image(8)
ntfs-3g 2022.10.3 February 2013 NTFSCLONE(8)