Questions

Q:

I always get unused space showing up after my last partition after a section Salvage completes. I'm sure that the last partition went to the last cylinder. What gives?

A:

A few blocks are often lost when the drive is partitioned. These blocks reside after the last cylinder specified by you but don't make a complete cylinder and can therefore not be used. RDB-Salv recognizes that these blocks may be used to create a small partition, and indicates it as such. The existence of the partition has a few side effects (experts should read the next paragraph). It's recommended that you remove the partition from the list by selecting it and clicking on the Remove button. Experts may value this more explicit explanation. You must reduce the value of the BlocksPerCyl, BlocksPerTrack and Heads parameters drastically to be able to mount the partition. This has the effect of dramatically increasing the number of cylinders. Which is not a problem in itself, but various prep tools (HDToolBox included) have problems with large values.

Q:

I have a floppy disk image stored in an 880kB file on my hard disk using FMS. Salvage finds this image. What does it mean?

A:

Read the chapter about section Salvage.

Q:

Why are salvaged partitions always called SALV<n> or UNUSED<n>? Please have the next version choose the right name like DH0.

A:

It's simply not technically possible. You've lost your RDB and partition blocks which is unfortunately the only place where the device names are stored. Therefore, restoring the names is no longer possible. If the device name was important, then you probably know it anyway. Don't you?

Q:

 section Salvage returns the wrong parameters. I'm absolutely sure that the values were different before.

A:

It's entirely possible that Salvage returns different values. But theses values are not necessarily wrong as there are numerous combinations which will allow the partitions to be mounted. Salvage calculates one of them. Just try them and you'll see them working!

Q:

I keep getting a requester telling me that a so-called TD_GETGEOMETRY isn't working. What does it mean?

A:

Read the chapter on section Installation.

Q:

My computer crashes when I click on Start.

A:

Read the chapter on section Installation. Take special note of the sections on NOGETGEOMETRY, NOSCSICMD and NONEWSTYLE.

Q:

I've managed to salvage my hard disk but it's running much more slowly now. What can I do about it?

A:

Check the values of Mask and MaxTransfer as described in section Salvage and correct the values if necessary. A larger number of Buffers can also increase speed.