Please note that this document is formatted to be read in display resolutions of 800x600 or better.

General information
Copyrights, disclaimer and distribution
Program description
How to use
  - parameters
  - menus and options explained
Run errors
Tools used and copyrights
Version history
Known issues
Contact information

Please note : In this document we refer to the "recovery manual". This recovery manual is not yet finished. Please check the site http://diydatarecovery.sites.cc for info on the recovery procedures that in the future will be described in the recovery manual. The direct link is here, (http://home.soneraplaza.nl/mw/prive/jvs/repoman.htm).

Repoman.exe - the program, version 1.01
Repoman_user_manual.htm - this manual, formatted, in HTML
Readme.txt - the readme

For info on harddisks and recovery check the DIY datarecovery (http://diydatarecovery.sites.cc) pages. This site contains information on harddisk recovery and assorted info and is maintained by RepoMan co-writer, Joep van Steen.

This program is conceived and written bij Joep van Steen and Tom Kuurstra.
(C) 2000, DIYdatarecovery and (C) 2000, Intra_Vee developments.

You may not include (parts of) this program in your own code and/or programs. Please check below for redistribution notices.

This program does NOT write anything to the harddisk that the recovery is performed on (unless the user directs the recovery output to a logical partition that is on the harddisk that is examined). This program therefore does NOT perform any recovery by itself. This is by design. The output this utility creates is to be used for the recovery of harddisk content. We can and will not be held responsible for any damage that might be inflicted by the user as he or she performs the recovery operations.

You, as the user, are not permitted to:

• decompile, disassemble or change the program code in any way;
• change the documentation or any text accompanying the program;
• change the distribution in any way. No files may be removed from and no files may be added to the distribution;
• use this program for commercial reasons or in environments (i.e. companies or persons) that (make a) profit from datarecovery;
• (re)sell the program, or accept any fee for distributing or using the program;
• redistribute the program. Distribution rules follow.

This program is distributed as Freeware. You are free to use this program, as long as you comply with the above mentioned rules. There is one restriction. You may NOT redistribute the program. This program may not be placed on bbs's, websites, FTP sites or any other location that facilitates download. If this is desired anyway, please contact us on one of the supplied e-mail addresses and we will get back to you. Please point to the original download location for redistribution, here, (http://home-1.worldonline.nl/~heems002/repoman.htm).

We also ask that you supply us with feedback on what has been achieved with the program or what has gone wrong. Also, any suggestions for changes or improvements are welcome. Contact information can be found at the end of this document.

- In short

A tool that runs in real-mode win9x/DOS environment, analyzes a harddisk that has suffered dataloss caused by whatever reason, on a sector basis and reports anything interesting it may find, aiding in the recovery of the information on the harddisk.

- A little less short

RepoMan scans the region on a harddisk that the user specified, sector by sector. Currently the program is limited to the first 1024 cylinders of a harddisk. The program will notify the user of any sectors that may be of interest, we call them "significant sectors". Notification is done through the use of recovery output. The recovery output contains dumps of the possibly significant sectors and any additional information that can be ascertained about these sectors. Use the recovery output, together with the recovery manual that is also in the distribution, to perform harddisk recovery. Read the recovery manual for information on the content of the recovery output. The recovery output can be directed to any logical drive, the floppy drive (A:) is default.

RepoMan uses int13H calls to access the harddisk through BIOS.

The program has several modes of operation. These modes can be selected in the "options" menu. The modes are:

QCK - quick scan. Only sector 1 on heads 0 and 1 are scanned. These are usually the sectors that contain interesting information. For instance, partitions always start on cylinder X, head 0/1, sector 1. This scan is very fast for obvious reasons but may skip potentially interesting sectors.

FUL - full scan. This mode scans all sectors within the specified search scope. This may take quite some time and produce large recovery output files.

TXT - text search. The specified search scope is scanned for a text string. The search string can be entered in the "options" menu. The search is NOT case sensitive. The search string has a maximum length of 16 characters. The search for the text string is the only operation that is performed, no significant sectors will be found, unless they contain the search string.

HEX - hex search. The specified search scope is scanned for a string of hex bytes. The string can be entered in the "options" menu and has a maximum length of 32 characters, which represent 16 bytes in hex. The string is NOT tested for validity so check carefully when you enter the hex bytes.

DMP - this mode performs a standard sector by sector dump for the specified search scope. Use this to look around on the disk, or to look at the region around sectors that RepoMan has marked as significant. No search or scan is performed. This may produce large recovery output files.

The master boot record (MBR, located at cylinder / head / sector 0/0/1) is always read, checked and dumped to the recovery output during QCK, FUL and DMP scans. Search modes (TXT and HEX) do not read and/or dump the MBR.

The program does NOT perform any recovery, nor does it write anything on the disk that has been selected for recovery, unless the user specifies a logical drive on that disk for the recovery output. This is by design. In it's default state this program can safely analyze a harddisk without destroying anything on it. The recovery output should be used for the actual recovery operation.

We call the files that RepoMan produces, the Recovery Output. It is adviced to view the recovery output in a DOS text editor. If you view the recovery output in Windows using Notepad for instance, your Windows settings (codepage and font settings) might distort the display of the ASCII display, on the right side of the recovery output file. The HEX information will always be displayed correctly.
Please note that all hex that is displayed in the recovery output has not been modified in any way, no calculations are performed. The bytes you see are the bytes that are on the disk, as they are.

Currently, RepoMan creates 1 recovery output file during a search. This file contains information on the significant sectors, any additional info Repoman can give about the sector and a dump of the sector.

The recovery output files are named as follows:

For a default dump : "REPOLOG.DMP"
For a search or scan, if overwrite is on : "REPOLOG.DAT"
For a search or scan, if overwrite is off : "REPOLOG.xxx", where xxx is a number from 000 to 999. The number is kept in the configuration file so if overwrite is off, adding files continues until 999 is reached, in which case the number is reset to 0, and files might be overwritten.

If a file already exists when the program starts, it will be overwritten (if "repolog.007" already exists when the program starts and the counter is at 7, the file will be overwritten).

RepoMan uses a configuration file, "repoman.cfg", for it's settings. This file is written to and read from the current directory. If you do not wish to use this feature, use the "/c" switch (see "starting the program" below).

- Get started.

When performing recovery with RepoMan and when running RepoMan, it is best to do this from a real mode DOS/win9x bootdisk. We assume you know how to create one. We suggest you create a bootdisk that boots with a large RAMdrive installed. The output RepoMan creates can then be redirected to the RAMdrive which speeds up the search process considerably. The output may also be redirected to the floppydrive or any other logical drive. Note that when the drive is full the recovery output will be overwritten, no warning is given. Make sure you have a large enough logical drive to hold the recovery output. You should not use the harddisk that the recovery is performed on for recovery output, even if it still contains a valid logical drive. Have a printer connected to the machine you are working on, the recovery output should be DOS textprinter friendly. If you wish you can print the files for reference.

Include a compression utility on the bootdisk to transport the recovery output from the RAMdrive to any other machine, if so desired. We endorse the ARJ compressor, the best and most flexible commandline compressor available,  which can be found here (http://www.arjsoftware.com).

- Starting the program.

Starting the program from the commandline with no parameters will display the main menu. Before the main menu is displayed some checks are performed: the target disk is checked to see if it exists and if it can be read; the disk is scanned for drive overlay signatures; the RepoMan configuration file is read. If any errors occur during these checks the user is notified.

If the disk can not be found or read, the program exits with an int13H error code. Use the code to see which exit condition is the cause for the abort and see if you can fix the problem. The list with exit int13H error return codes can be found in the "run errors" section.

If a signature for drive overlay software is found the program will notify the user. The program will not abort. The user should check to see if the drive overlay software is loaded. If not, the search results will be erratic and can not be used for recovery.

If the program finds errors or inconsistancies in the configuration file, it will alert the user and correct the settings in error. If the configuration file does not exist when the program is started, default settings are used and a new configuration file is created.

Use the following parameters at the commandline for additional settings or to change the way the program runs:

/D:x, where x is 0, 1, 2 or 3 - use to select the disk number, default is 0.
/C:x, where x is Y or N - use the config file for settings, default is Y.
/X:x, where x is Y or N - use to let the program run without any interaction, settings from the config file are used, default is N
/? - display the parameters

These parameters can be used in any order and in any combination. If you specify "/X" the configuration file is always used, if the config file is not found, the program will abort.

When the program is ready for use it will display the main menu, which looks like this :

 --- RepoMan - version 1.01 ---------------------------------------------------

 --- Main Menu ---                     --- Current settings/info ---
                                       for drive 0       Cyl / Head / Sect
                                             drive geo : 1023 / 254 / 63
 (s) - Specify search scope            start search at : 0 / 0 / 2
                                         end search at : 0 / 1 / 1

 (o) - Options                             offset info : DEC
                                         file location : A:\
                                        overwrite logs : YES
                                                viewer : EDIT
                                            file count : 0
                                           geo correct : -1
                                           search mode : QCK
 (x) - Execute
 (v) - View latest result file

 Escape to exit
 (i) for info                          Log file :

 --- Status/Input: ------------------------------------------------------------
    Select option

The left side of the screen contains the menu options, the right side contains information on the current disk geometry and the current settings. Below the settings is the filename for the results of the previous scan or dump.

The top line contains the program name and version information.

The bottom 3 lines are used for status information and for user input. During a search or scan the location that is currently scanned is displayed. Also displayed are two values, the first being "SD" (sectors dumped and/or found) and the second being "I13E" (the number of int13H errors encountered so far).

The basic screen layout is the same for all menus.

Main menu options :

(s) - use this option to enter the search scope, sector based, on which to perform the scan. The scope is entered on a C/H/S (Cylinder / Head / Sector) bases.
(o) - use this option to change the settings.
(x) - will start the scan, search or dump according to the current settings. When running, you can abort the scan by pressing Escape.
(v) - will start the viewer with the latest result file loaded.
(i) - will show some info on the program.

Press Escape to exit the program.

The "specify search scope" menu looks like this :

 --- RepoMan - version 1.01 ---------------------------------------------------

 --- Specify Search Menu ---           --- Current settings/info ---
                                       for drive 0       Cyl / Head / Sect
                                             drive geo : 1023 / 254 / 63
 (s) - Enter search start location     start search at : 0 / 0 / 2
 (e) - Enter search end location         end search at : 0 / 1 / 1
 (a) - Set scope to max
                                           offset info : DEC
                                         file location : A:\
                                        overwrite logs : YES
                                                viewer : EDIT
                                            file count : 0
                                           geo correct : -1
                                           search mode : QCK

 Escape for main menu
                                       Log file :

 --- Status/Input: ------------------------------------------------------------
    Select option

Options :

(s) - enter the start address for the scan or dump, in cylinder/head/sector format. If you selected the "qck" (quick) search you can only enter the cylinder value. Validity checking is performed on the entries. If you enter any invalid value the program will notify you and then reset the value to default. Check your entries based on the notification the program gives you. The first sector you can specify is sector 0/0/2. The MBR is always checked for modes QCK, FUL and DMP and never checked for TXT and HEX searches.
(e) - enter the end address for the scan or dump, in cylinder/head/sector format. If you selected the quick search you can only enter the cylinder value.
(a) - set the scope from the first entered sector to the last sector according to the drive geometry.

Press Escape to return to the main menu.

The "options" screen looks like this:

 --- RepoMan - version 1.01 ---------------------------------------------------

 --- Settings Menu ---                 --- Current settings/info ---
 (s) - Reset all settings              for drive 0       Cyl / Head / Sect
                                             drive geo : 1023 / 254 / 63
                                       start search at : 0 / 0 / 2
                                         end search at : 0 / 1 / 1

 (i) - Offset info in dec/hex              offset info : DEC
 (d) - Location for files                file location : A:\
 (o) - Overwrite logfiles               overwrite logs : YES
 (v) - Set external viewer                      viewer : EDIT
 (r) - Reset filecount                      file count : 0
 (c) - 0-based drive geo correction        geo correct : -1
 (m) - Search mode qck/ful/txt/hex/dmp     search mode : TXT
 (t) - Text string                        searchstring -
                                       TXT [________________]

 Escape for main menu
                                       Log file :

 --- Status/Input: ------------------------------------------------------------
    Select option

Options:

(s) - resets all settings to their defaults. This is the same as deleting the "repoman.cfg" file.
(i) - choose to see byte offset information in HEX or decimal values. The offset information always starts with 000 (the first byte is at offset 000).
(d) - enter the location for the recovery output. You may enter a logical drive letter, with one directoryname if desired (for instance "a:\logfiles\"), this directory must exist at run time or the program will display an error and abort. The last character must always be a "\". The location name must follow DOS 8.3 conventions. The program checks the entry. If the entry is not correct, the program will notify the user and reset the value to it's default. If the program can not write the output files, it will generate a run error and notify the user. Check below for info on run errors.
(o) - select this option to choose between overwriting the recovery output when a scan or search is started, or to add to files that already exist. See "program description" for further info.
(v) - enter a filename for an external text viewer or text editor. The program must be in a location that is in the realmode search path, or in the location from where RepoMan is started. Enter the filename only, no path and/or drive info can be entered.
(r) - use this to reset the filecounter that is used when overwrite is off.
(c) - use this to change the drive geometry numbers. Some BIOS's return the maximum cylinders and maximum heads as 1 more or 1 less than they actually are (some BIOS's start to count at 1 instead of 0, which leads to incorrect numbers for the drive geometry. RepoMan always assumes the count for cylinders and heads starts at 0 and the count for sectors starts at 1). If you receive some int13H errors that occur when reading the last few sectors of a disk, change this setting to see if that solves the problem. As of this writing, the drive geometry values for cylinder can not be higher than 1023 and the value for heads can not be higher than 254. Use option (c) to adapt the values if neccessary.
(m) - switch the search or scan mode. See "program description" for more information on this. If the search mode is switched to TXT or HEX another option appears, (t) - enter searchstring. Use this option to enter the text or hex string you wish to search for. The text string can not be longer than 16 characters and the hex string can not be longer than 32 (=16 characters in hex) characters. The text search is NOT case sensitive.
(t) - enter search string in either HEX or TXT. This option will only appear if the appropriate search mode (HEX or TXT) is selected.

Press Escape to return to the main menu.

If a problem occurs during a scan or search that effects the program run, the program will interrupt the search, clear the screen and display text about the error found. A description of the error will be given unless the error is unknown, in which case the user will be given the errorcode. See contact information for info on how to deal with this.
The program will present the user with the choice to abort the program or continue. We advice against continuing, the search results are not reliable when continuing after a program error.

If an error in an int13H function occurs, the program will not abort, unless the error occurred during the initialization fase. All int13H errors are logged to the recovery output and can be traced back to the sector where they occurred. By capturing int13H errors this way it is easy to find the offending sector.

The error return codes for the program:

The error return codes for int13H functions :

01 - Bad command
02 - Bad address mark
04 - Record not found
05 - Bad reset
07 - Init failure
09 - DMA boundary
0B - Bad cylinder
10 - Bad ECC
11 - Data corrected
20 - Bad controller
40 - Bad seek
BB - Undefined error
FF - Sense failure

If you get a different returncode than the ones listed here, send us an e-mail. Check contact information for info on this.

We would like to acknowledge the copyrights and extend our respect to the following people for creating the following tools:

BASM 6.5 (BASIC to 286 Assembly Language Compiler) (c) 1999 by Kevin Diggins.
Arrowsoft Assembler, Public Domain v2.00c (64K Model), Copyright (c) 1986, 1987 Arrowsoft Systems, Inc.
Freelink 2.50 Copyright 1989-92 Michael Devore and hyperkinetix, inc.

Please go to http://www.users.uswest.net/~sdiggins/basm.html for more information on BASM and the above mentioned tools.

All mentioning in the text of "win9x/DOS " refers to MS-Windows, (c) Microsoft Coorporation.

• Partition recognition extended
• Recognition of possible FAT/FAT32 start sectors added
• Extended the information displayed for significant sectors
• Removed some small bugs in the validity checking part of the program and the initialize part of the program
• Added displaying of information on the partition tabel
• Display of errorcodes and explanations added
• Removed writing of the second result file (the LOG file)
• Changed the lay-out of the result file into something more intuitive, i hope (first the info on the sector, then the sector itself)

• The program does not give any feedback when the target drive for the recovery output is full. The recovery output will be overwritten without notice, in which case the recovery output can not be used reliably for recovery.
• The program is limited to scanning the first 1024 cylinders of a harddisk.
• Sometimes the (v) option in the main menu will not work. We are aware of this problem and are working on it.

DIYdatarecovery (Joep van Steen) :

website : DIY datarecovery, (http://diydatarecovery.sites.cc)
E-mail : webmaster (webmaster@diydatarecovery.sites.cc)

Intra_Vee Developments (Tom Kuurstra) :

website : Intra_Vee, (http://intravee.sites.cc)
E-mail : Intra_Vee, (intra_vee@worldmail.nl)

If you experience an unknown error or any other problems please mail us on one the above mentioned addresses. Please explain the situation in which the error occurred and note any codes or text the program displayed during the error. Also include a description of the machine the program is running on, try to be as specific as you can. Include the log file, if you have one and the RepoMan version number.

Currently, the distribution point for RepoMan can be found here. (http://home-1.worldonline.nl/~heems002/repoman.htm).
The RepoMan file download can also be directly reached from the DIYdatarecovery pages.
Check the Intra_Vee pages for current info on RepoMan.
Also check the DIYdatarecovery site for info and updates on RepoMan and recovery information.