Beiträge von YAL

NTFSCLONE(8)                                                      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 res‐
       cue 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
       unchanged (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  developers  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 partition (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 design: ntfsclone is a
       filesystem, not system utility. Its aim is only NTFS cloning, not  Win‐
       dows  cloning. Hereby ntfsclone can be used as a very fast and reliable
       build block for Windows clonning but itself it's not  enough.  You  can
       find useful tips following the related links on the below page
       http://wiki.linux-ntfs.org/doku.php?id=ntfsclone


   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 always 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 com‐
       press 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 analy‐
       ses  the  entire  file, it doesn't pass on the large data blocks having
       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  output.  Even more sadly, using the -S option results serious
       data loss since the end of 2004 and the GNU tar maintainers didn't  re‐
       lease fixed versions until the present day.


   The Special Image Format
       It's also possible, actually it's recommended, to save an NTFS filesys‐
       tem to a special image format.   Instead  of  representing  unallocated
       blocks  as holes, they are encoded using control codes. Thus, the image
       saves space without requiring 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 com‐
       bined  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 --re‐
       store-image option. Note that you can restore images from standard  in‐
       put 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, trou‐
       bleshooting.


       In this mode of ntfsclone, NONE of the user's data is saved,  including
       the resident user's data embedded into metadata. All is filled with ze‐
       ros.  Moreover all the file timestamps, deleted and unused  spaces  in‐
       side  the metadata are filled with zeros. Thus this mode is inappropri‐
       ate for example for forensic analyses.


       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 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.


       -o, --output FILE
              Clone NTFS to the non-existent FILE.  If FILE is '-' then  clone
              to the standard output.


       -O, --overwrite FILE
              Clone NTFS to FILE, overwriting if exists.


       -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  argu‐
              ment. If the SOURCE is '-' then the image is read from the stan‐
              dard input.


       --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  be‐
              ginning of such sectors are marked by "BadSectoR\0".


       -m, --metadata
              Clone ONLY METADATA (for NTFS experts). Moreover only cloning to
              a file is allowed.  You can't metadata-only clone to  a  device,
              image or standard output.


       --ignore-fs-check
              Ignore  the result of the filesystem consistency check. This op‐
              tion is allowed to be used only with the --metadata option,  for
              the  safety  of user's data. The clusters which cause the incon‐
              sistency are saved too.


       -f, --force
              Forces ntfsclone to proceed if the filesystem is marked  "dirty"
              for consistency check.


       -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.


              ntfsclone --metadata --output ntfsmeta.img /dev/hda1
              bzip2 ntfsmeta.img


       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 describing it to the develop‐
       ment team: linux-ntfs-dev@lists.sourceforge.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  handling  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.


AVAILABILITY
       ntfsclone is part of the ntfsprogs package and is available at:
       http://www.linux-ntfs.org/content/view/19/37


       The latest manual pages are available at:
       http://man.linux-ntfs.org/


       Additional up-to-date information can be found furthermore at:
       http://wiki.linux-ntfs.org/doku.php?id=ntfsclone


SEE ALSO
       ntfsresize(8) ntfsprogs(8) xfs_copy(8) debugreiserfs(8) e2image(8)






ntfsprogs 2.0.0                  February 2006                    NTFSCLONE(8)