This page primarily serves to read an existing RDB and its associated partition blocks as well as to locate lost, but not yet over-written partition blocks. If the system has not been rebooted, and partitions are still mounted after loss of the RDB-Data, then the DeviceList can also be scanned for data.
If you can still see data from apparently lost partitions, then it's preferred that you use this page (Read) as this page can locate more accurate information about your old partitions. However, it's not infrequent that Read does not locate some or any information. In that case, you can still resort to Salvage.
To use this page, you must specify -- as described in Backup --- the Device and Unit.
If you have not rebooted since losing the RDB, (i.e. if all the partitions are still mounted) you can set the Method to Read from DeviceList. Otherwise, set Method to Read from Media.
If you also wish to find lost blocks while reading from media, then set the Find lost blocks option. If you only wish to see the current RDB and the associated partition blocks, then set Find lost blocks to off.
If Find lost blocks is set, even the space behind the RDB and associated management blocks will be scanned for old RDB-Data --- if need be, the entire disk. This can also locate backup copies of RDBs amongst the lost partitioning information; backup copies which have been stored on the hard disk against recommendations.
Click on Start. The available RDB and associated partition blocks will be found and displayed very quickly. If you have selected Find lost blocks, then a requester appears before the scan starts to remind you that you can cancel the operation after about a minute if intend to only search for lost RDB-Data, as that always resides at the beginning of the hard disk.
The left panel shows any data as ghosted text, as soon as it is located. If the scan is interrupted, all data found to that point will be indicated as solid text.
You may select any of the items found, upon completion of the scan to read details of the selected item in the right-hand panel. Lost blocks can now be added to the RDSK -- as described in section The Salv/Read Menu -- using the Add to RDSK menu option in the Salv/Read menu.
Note: If the addition of partitions leads to overlap in the RDSK, then some prep programs will become terribly confused! Take care!