K.2. Fixing NTFS file systems

The NTFS FSIM can run the ntfsfix utility on an NTFS file system.

ntfsfix fixes NTFS partitions altered in any manner with the Linux NTFS driver. ntfsfix is not a Linux version of chkdsk. ntfsfix only tries to leave the NTFS partition in a not-so-inconsistent state after the NTFS driver has written to it.

Running ntfsfix after mounting an NTFS volume read-write is recommended for reducing the chance of severe data loss when Windows NT or Windows 2000 tries to remount the affected volume.

In order to use ntfsfix, you must unmount the NTFS volume. After running ntfsfix, you can safely reboot into Windows NT or Windows 2000. Please note that ntfsfix is not an fsck-like tool. ntfsfix is not guaranteed to fix all the alterations provoked by the NTFS driver.

The following option is available for running ntfsfix on an NTFS file system:

force

Force ntfsfix to write changes even if it detects that the file system is dirty. The default is false.