ntfsclone
Efficiently clone, image, restore, or rescue an NTFS volume
TLDR
SYNOPSIS
ntfsclone [options] source
DESCRIPTION
ntfsclone efficiently clones an NTFS filesystem to a sparse file, special image, device, or standard output. It works at the cluster level and only copies used data, making it much faster and more space-efficient than sector-level tools like dd.
The special image format (--save-image) encodes unused space with control codes rather than storing it, producing significantly smaller backup files. These images can only be restored with ntfsclone --restore-image and are not directly mountable.
The --rescue mode is designed for dying disks, reading data with minimal stress on the hardware and filling unreadable sectors with zeros.
PARAMETERS
-o, --output FILE
Output file or device. Use - for standard output.-O, --overwrite FILE
Overwrite an existing file or device (required for writing to partitions).-s, --save-image
Save to the special ntfsclone image format (only copies used clusters).-r, --restore-image
Restore from a special ntfsclone image.-m, --metadata
Clone only NTFS metadata (for debugging; result is still mountable).--rescue
Continue on disk read errors, filling bad sectors with zeros.--ignore-fs-check
Ignore the result of the filesystem consistency check.-f, --force
Force cloning even if the volume is marked dirty.--help
Display help information.
CAVEATS
Part of the ntfs-3g package. Special image files are not mountable and can only be restored with ntfsclone. When cloning to a partition, the destination must be at least as large as the source. The volume should be unmounted during cloning.
HISTORY
ntfsclone was developed as part of ntfs-3g (formerly ntfsprogs) for efficient NTFS backup and restore on Linux systems.
SEE ALSO
ntfsresize(1), ntfs-3g(1), ntfsfix(1), dd(1), partclone(1)
