title: Deleting & Recreating NTFS Journals (Or How to Properly run the 'fsutil usn' Command)
body: <p>I have a <code>chkdsk</code> Stage 3 error (which relates to NTFS usn journals and security descriptors).</p>
  <p>Corrupted NTFS journals prevent <code>chkdsk /f</code> from running a repair of the volume.  So <code>chkdsk</code> repairs won't run and this is not a solution.</p>
  <p>However, I have heard the corruption can be repaired by deleting and recreating the NTFS journal.  This can be done by executing the following commands at the command prompt or PowerShell with administrator privileges:</p>
  <pre><code>fsutil usn deletejournal /d /n
  </code></pre>
  <p>followed by</p>
  <pre><code>fsutil usn createjournal m=&lt;maxsize&gt; a=&lt;allocationdelta&gt; &lt;volumepath&gt;
  </code></pre>
  <p>However, Microsoft documentation on the switches and parameters for these commands is very poor.  Can anyone please advise :</p>
  <ol>
  <li>What the /d and /n switches actually do.  Are they permanent?  Do I need to re-enable them if I am creating a new journal?  How would I re-enable if I had to?</li>
  <li>What are the <code>&lt;maxsize&gt;</code> and <code>&lt;allocationdelta&gt;</code> parameters?</li>
  <li>How do I figure out what values to set <code>&lt;maxsize&gt;</code> and <code>&lt;allocationdelta&gt;</code>to?  What are the default values?</li>
  </ol>
  <p>Finally, how safe is it to delete the NTFS journals in this manner?</p>
  <p>Thanks.</p>
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ntcbk.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ntcbk.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>