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+----------------------------------------+ | | | Partition saving | | | | http://www.partition-saving.com | | Copyright (c) 1999-2004 D. Guibouret | +----------------------------------------+ Manual Table of contents ----------------- 1- Preamble 2- Presentation 3- Needed configuration 4- Interface running a) Textual windows interface b) Command line interface 5- Use of program 6- Saving element a) Support choice: b) Source element choice: c) Part to save: d) File choice: e) File size choice: f) Deflating choice: g) Saving window: h) Options file creation: i) Examples: 7- Restoring element a) File choice: b) Destination element choice: c) Restoring window: d) Examples: 8- Copying element a) Support choice: b) Source element choice: c) Part to save: d) Destination element choice: e) Copying window: f) Examples: 9- Copying file 10- Verifying file 11- Updating Windows 2000/XP registry a) Support choice where Windows is installed: b) Element choice where Windows is installed: c) Directory where Windows is installed: d) Disk choice where partition to update is: e) Partition to update choice: f) Drive letter of partition to update: g) Confirmation: 12- Updating BOOTSECT.DOS file a) Support choice where BOOTSECT.DOS file is: b) Element choice where BOOTSECT.DOS file is: c) Confirmation: 13- Simulating an element a) Use of driver: b) Simulating an element: c) Remarks: 14- Options file contents 15- About what can be saved a) Whole disk: b) The Master Boot Record (MBR): c) First sectors of disk: d) Partition table: e) Partitions (all sectors): f) Partitions (only occupied sectors): g) FAT (12, 16 and 32) partitions (DOS/Windows): h) Ext2fs/ext3fs partitions (Linux): i) NTFS partitions: j) Floppy disks: k) DOS devices: 16- What is not supported 17- What can not be tested 18- Acknowledgements 1- Preamble ----------- This program can be copied and freely redistributed. It can not be sold in any way either alone or included into another program. All what is in this package must be kept together into its original shape. This program is afforded as it is without any guarantee. No pursuit can be engaged against its author in case of damages due to this program. All remarks are welcome. 2- Presentation --------------- This program has as goal to realise saving, restoring and copying of disk element (whole disk, Master Boot Record, partitions table, partition). This allows saving hard disk contents to restore it later in case of a problem and this without loosing time with installation and configuration of all software. This program allows running following tasks: - saving an element (hard disk, partition, floppy disk, device). - restoring an element that was saved before. - copying an element. - copying of files created by this program with modifying their size or deflate rate. - checking of created files. - updating partition definition into Windows 2000/XP registry. - updating BOOTSECT.DOS file. - simulating element with created files. For all information about partitioning or program please read additional information. 3- Needed configuration ----------------------- Hardware: - 386 or better. - 4 Mb of memory (could work with less, but data compression could potentially not be done). Free DOS memory must be at least 300 Kb. Software: - DOS (version >= 3.3). This program does not work on Windows (see additional information) and it is advised against using it with an emulator (mostly if it works into a multitasking environment). You will need also a FAT partition (or any other filesystem for which you have a DOS driver that allows to access it) to create saving file (it is not needed if you want to copy a partition as no file is created). 4- Interface running -------------------- Two interface types are available: - an interface with textual windows that presents information with windows that can be used with keyboard or mouse. - an interface like the command line that presents information in a basic way and that can be used only with keyboard. Default interface is the first one. The second one is here to resolve some incompatibility of some computers. To know how to choose interface to use, please read chapter 5. a) Textual windows interface Interface can be used with keyboard or mouse. Keys common to all windows are: - Tab, bottom arrow or right arrow to go from one element to another into a window. - Maj+Tab, up arrow or left arrow to go from one element to another into a window (in reverse order compared to Tab). - Ctrl+Tab to go from one window to another. - Alt+Tab to go from one window to another (in reverse order compared to Ctrl+Tab). - Key assignments are defined to associate moving keys to a combination of keys using Control key: +-------------+----------+ | Moving keys | Grouping | +-------------+----------+ | Home | Ctrl+B | | End | Ctrl+E | | Down | Ctrl+D | | Up | Ctrl+U | | Right | Ctrl+R | | Left | Ctrl+L | | Page Down | Ctrl+N | | Page Up | Ctrl+P | | BackSpace | Ctrl+H | | Delete | Ctrl+X | | Insert | Ctrl+Y | | Return | Ctrl+M | | Tab | Ctrl+F | | Shift+Tab | Ctrl+G | | Alt+Tab | Ctrl+V | | Ctrl+Tab | Ctrl+W | +-------------+----------+ In case no element seems to be selected, press one of these keys to select first or last one switch key pressed. In general, Enter key activates Ok button (in case no other button is selected) and Escape key activates Cancel button. All elements of windows are presented below: - Command buttons: to activate them, you have to press Enter key when they are selected, or on Alt+<red letter into button name> (even if button is not selected). You can activate them by clicking on them. A button has a black background if it is selected and is flanked by ">" and "<", else it has a green background. - Entry lines: it is the element that permits to enter data. You have just to press character to add them where the cursor is. Delete and BackSpace keys are used to suppress characters (respectively character that is on cursor and character before cursor). Right and left arrows are used to move cursor and Home and End keys are used to go to begin or end of string. When pressing shift key when you use moving keys, you will select text that will be erased when you will press a key other than the moving one. By pressing Ctrl+A you select all the text. At last Insert key is used to switch from insert mode (default mode: cursor is underlined cursor) to replacement mode (cursor is block-cursor) and reciprocal. With mouse, you can move the cursor by clicking where you want it to be, scroll the text by clicking on arrow on left or on right, select the text by keeping button pressed when moving mouse and select all the text by double clicking on it. An entry line is selected when it has the cursor that appears in it. - Listboxes: they are used to choose an element into a list. Up and bottom arrows are used to move from one element to another, Page-Up and Page-Down keys are used to go to begin and end of list. If right column is with a different colour and contains a # character, it is because all elements can not be seen and the # character is used to locate current selected element into list. With mouse, you can select an element. If scroll bar appears on right, you can change list position by clicking where you want to be, or by clicking arrows on up or bottom. By double clicking on selected element you will activate command associated to the list (generally Ok button). A selected item has a grey background if its listbox is not selected, and has a black background if its listbox is selected. - Checkboxes: this element allows activating/deactivating an option. To change state of a checkbox, you have to click on it or press Space key when it is selected. Checkbox is activated when an 'X' appears between square bracket, it is deactivated in other case. A checkbox is selected when its text is white, is not selected when its text is grey. b) Command line interface This interface is more basic and can only be used with keyboard. At any moment pressing Escape key stop execution of program. Elements are following: - Lists: a list is displayed with a number on left. You have to enter element number when it is asked to choose it. If the list is bigger than screen size, you will have to press a key to make it scrolling. - Entering information: you have to enter asked information (by example a filename). Delete key allows removing last character (what you have already entered is displayed on next line without the last character and you can continue to enter characters). It is not possible to move cursor. - Choices: they are made of a question with answer possibilities given between brackets (sample: (Y/N)). You have to give an answer by choosing into these possibilities. Letter case is not taken into account. 5- Use of program ----------------- Use: savepart.exe [-l en|fr|fr_2] [-cm|-nm|-pm] [-f <options file>] [-ncd] [-nvd] [-nvf] [-cui|-tui|-bui] [-b|-c|-d|-i|-m|-r|-s|-t|-u] -l: this option allows you to select language to use. You have to use this option only if automatically recognised language is not correct. If an error appears before this option is analysed, error message will be written with the automatically detected language. Recognised languages are: * en: English. * fr: French. * fr_2: French with others code pages. Detection of language set language to French when detecting France, French Canada, French Guyana, French Antilles or French Polynesia settings, else it set English. fr_2 is to be used in case accents are not well displayed. I do not know for which settings it was (and I am not sure there was a DOS setting for it), it is accents as Windows and Linux code them (ANSI). I put it in case of need (if somebody use it, please tell me with which configuration) and it is not automatically detected. -cm: this option is the default way mouse is used. -pm: this option is another way to use mouse that can be used in case the first one does not work (it is default method with Windows NT/XP). Using this method can prevent to detect some double clicks. -nm: this option allows you to avoid using mouse. You would have to use it only if mouse use seems to pose a problem with 2 previouses method. -f <options file>: this option allows you to use batch mode. To know contents of this file, please read chapter 14. -ncd: this option disables the check that created/read file is not on saved/restored element. It is better to use it only in case DOS drive letter attribution is wrong. -nvd: this option disables the check that sectors are correctly written. This speeds up restoring, but can prevent from detecting bad sectors on disk. -nvf: this option disables the check that files are correctly written and that sectors are correctly written when using DOS devices access. This speeds up saving (and restoring in second case), but can do that created files or restored devices are incorrect because disk where they are written begins to be damaged. -cui|-tui|-bui: this option allows you to select user interface: * -cui: command line interface. * -tui: textual window interface. * -bui: textual window interface using BIOS calls to write on screen. This ensures a better compatibility but goes slower. If this option is not given, textual window interface is used. This option has to be used only if this interface poses a problem (by example nothing appends when program begins). In this case, you can first try with the -bui option, and if it still does not work, use the -cui one. -b|-c|-d|-i|-m|-r|-s|-t|-u: this option allows selecting action to do: * -b: update BOOTSECT.DOS file. * -c: copy an element. * -d: copy files created by this program to modify them (deflate rate or maximum size). * -i: get information from driver. * -m: simulate an element with saving files. * -r: restore an element. * -s: save an element. * -t: check a saving file. * -u: update Windows 2000/XP registry. If this option is not given, program asks you what you want to do. To have information about each action, please read following chapters. Return code of program can be one of the following: - 0 if no error has been detected. - 1 if en error has appeared. - 2 if user cancels execution. - 3 if no error has been detected, but there was some bad sectors. - 255 if some exception has been raised. Remarks: -------- - -f <option file> can not be used when copying a partition or files. - copying or checking file can be executed with Windows (in this case it will certainly run faster than with DOS). 6- Saving element ----------------- This is the part executed when you use -s option or if you choose it when program asks for it. Execution follows below diagram (if not in batch mode): support choice | V source element choice | V [part to save] |<------------------------+---+ V | | file choice | | | | | V | | file size choice | | +-------------------------+ | V | [deflating choice] | | | V | saving window | +-----------------------------+ V options file creation | V end a) Support choice: You have to choose the disk, floppy drive or DOS device where the element to save is. Disk access mode is given: - standard access: with this access mode disk is accessed with its physical definition (cylinder, sector, head). With this access mode sector size can not been known (it is taken to 512 bytes which is most common value) and disk size is at most of 8 Gb. - extended access: it is a new access mode, which becomes the standard one. In this case hard disk is seen as an unique lead (it does not care of physical definition). This mode allows to use more than 8 Gb hard disk. Nevertheless size reported can be wrong (without any consequence). Sector size can be different from 512 bytes (but this value is always the most common). For floppy drive, access is always standard access and for DOS devices it appears as extended for Partition Saving, but as it is DOS driver that accesses device, this is this last one that choose access mode. b) Source element choice: This window allows you to select part of disk to save. Support allows you to know if element is directly related to disk or to a partition. In the case of a partitions support is used to know if partition is a main partition or if it is a partition defined into an extended partition. Partition number is the number as given into Linux. Drive name is the DOS drive name that corresponds to partition (if it is a DOS partition). This can be wrong because some new partition type can be defined (for example with Windows95, several new partition types have been defined for VFAT16 and FAT32 partitions). In the case of an element related to disk, element type allows to identify element: it can be the whole disk, the master boot record (first sector of disk), sectors that are before first partition and partition table. In the case of an element related to partition, element type is partition type: this is used to identify OS install on. As this type is not normalised, list is not exhaustive. Size gives element size. By default, it is expressed in Mb, except in cases where it is followed by Kb. Partition name is the label (or volume name). It is given when it can be found. If for DOS drive, there seems to be incoherence between drive letter and partition name, this last one is certainly correct and drive letter wrong. For floppy drive, this window does not appear. For DOS devices, you can choose the device to save into list given you those DOS knows as having a sector access and having a FAT filesystem. Remark: ------- If you save a main partition of extended type, you will save all partitions defined into this extended partition (all that have "Extended n <extended partition chosen>" as support). c) Part to save: This window only appears if chosen partition is of one of the type for which saving only occupied sectors is available. In this case, it proposes following choices: - "All sectors": in this case, all sectors of partition are saved without considering if they are occupied or not. This make that saving need more space than in following case, but allows to save a partition even if it is heavily damaged (by example to save it before trying some radical way to repair it). Constraints are that this partition can only be restored on a partition with the same format (hard disk must have the same size and physical definition, and partition must have the same size and be at the same place). - "Occupied sectors": in this case, only occupied sectors are saved. This has advantage that saving need less space and allows restoring this partition on a different partition (it can be on another disk, at another place and have another size), but there were still some size constraints. Disadvantages are that it needs more memory and saving can fail if your partition is damaged (by example if important sectors are damaged). - "Partition on itself": this case can appear only for FAT partitions. It is the same as previous case but allows creating a saving file on the saved partition (what must NOT be done for the 2 previous cases). Constraints are that it needs more memory, and you will have to do a scandisk on the restored partition (after having restarted your computer) to correct some potential errors on the size of created files (those you have used for restoration are correct, that are those on the restored partition that are not). If partition to save is not a partition for which saving only occupied sectors is available or if you have chosen an element that is related to disk, this window will not appear and all sectors will be saved. To have more information on saving only occupied sectors, please read chapter 15. Remark: ------- - a window informing you of searching for last occupied sector is displayed between maximum filesize choice and saving window. In the case you choose one of the two options where only occupied sectors are saved, this window can be displayed for a long time. In the case you save all sectors, you will certainly not see it because it is displayed too shortly. d) File choice: In this window you can choose name and location of file where to save partition data. For this purpose you can type into "File" line the name of the file (with possibly its path) or select one into files list or select another directory with drives and directories lists. by default "*.*" is displayed which means that all files are displayed. A second window gives you possibility to use automatic naming. With this option program will generate automatically filename for following file if several files are needed. In this purpose program uses first filename and changes (or adds) the two last characters of file extension (three lasts if more than 100 files are needed) by file number (with using 0 for number of first file). Be example if your first file is called "disk_c.par", the second one will be "disk_c.p01", the third "disk_c.p02", ..., the hundred and one "disk_c.100". A third window give you the list of DOS drives with free space and the full size of the partition (without taking into account the fact that only occupied sectors can be saved and that deflating is used). Remarks: -------- - if a drive does not appear into drives list, it is because it can not be detected. Nevertheless, you can enter its letter into file name line (in this case drive list would not give the right name, but there was no consequence). - if selected file already exists, a window is opened to confirm selection (if file is read-only, the window will inform you that it can not be removed). - if you save a FAT partition, you should NOT create the file on the partition you save unless you choose "Partition on itself" option into window asking you what you want to save. If you do not have chosen this option and try to create a file on partition to save, a warning window informs you of this potential problem. It is not displayed in the case you use "-ncd" option. - when using automatic naming, file existence is not checked except for the first file, so file will be removed if it exists (by example, avoid to call the first file <name>.<letter>01 because it will be erased when creating second one). e) File size choice: With this window you can choose the maximum size you want the file does. If more space is needed to save partition, a new file will be asked to you when this one will be full. If free size on drive is less than 10 Mb, asked size is in kb, else it is in Mb. This maximum size can not be bigger than the minimum between drive free size and 2047 Mb. If you enter 0, you go back to the file choice window. f) Deflating choice: If you have enough memory, a window asking which deflating level you want to use to deflate data. Level goes from 0 (no deflating) to 9 (maximum deflating). Level generally used by deflate program is level 6. More the deflating level is high, more execution will be long (but there was only a little change for inflating). If you do not have enough memory, a window saying that is opened. In this case no deflating is done (<=> 0 level). This window will be displayed only after the choice of the first file (for others file the same deflating rate is used). Deflating algorithm used is the gzip one. g) Saving window: This window gives you advancement of saving. Upper progress bar gives advancement for element to save. Lower progress bar gives advancement for file in relation to its maximum size. So it is not abnormal for this progress to not reach 100% when saving ends. Remaining time is an estimation of remaining time. Its exactness is strongly influenced by the fact that deflating or saving of only occupied sectors is used. Errors list is the list of errors detected when reading sectors on disk. If you have the same errors when restoring and if, when you use disk checking program (like surface checking of scandisk), bad sectors appear, these errors have no consequence (if there was no data on these sectors before saving, but it is OS rules to do that). If the maximum file size you give is not enough to save all data (progress bar for file reaches 100%), a new file name is asked to you with its maximum size. While saving is running, you can not activate Ok button (only cancel button can be activated to stop saving). When saving is ended, Ok button becomes active, cancel button inactive, and line marked "State" changes from "Running ..." to "Ended.". h) Options file creation: If you do not use batch mode (or if some options have been added to those given into batch mode), a window will ask you if you want to create an options file that will allow you to use batch mode for future save/restore of this partition. If you answer "yes", a window will ask you to give its name. This file will content all options you have used. Remarks: -------- - content of this file is valid only as long as you do not change your hard drive partitioning. - names of files used to save data are absolute file names. So you will have to change this options file if you move these saved files. - you can create this file manually. - DOS name (8.3: 8 characters maximum for file name and 3 characters maximum for extension) must be used for file names given into options file. i) Examples: Let consider you have 2 hard drives partitioned like below (next to partition type you have <DOS>|<Linux> convention naming): Disk 1 Disk 2 +-------------------------------+ +-------------------------------+ | Main partition 1: | | Main partition 1: | | DOS FAT 32 (C:|hda1) | | DOS FAT 32 (D:|hdb1) | +-------------------------------+ | | | Main partition 2: | +-------------------------------+ | DOS extended ( |hda2) | | Main partition 2: | | +---------------------------+ | | DOS extended ( |hdb2) | | | Extended partition 1 of | | | +---------------------------+ | | | main partition 2: | | | | Extended partition 1 of | | | | DOS FAT 32 (E:|hda5) | | | | main partition 2: | | | +---------------------------+ | | | DOS FAT 32 (G:|hdb5) | | | | Extended partition 2 of | | | | | | | | main partition 2: | | | +---------------------------+ | | | DOS VFAT 16 (F:|hda6) | | +-------------------------------+ | +---------------------------+ | | Main partition 3: | +-------------------------------+ | Empty ( |hdb3) | | Main partition 3: | | | | Linux ext2 ( |hda3) | +-------------------------------+ +-------------------------------+ | Main partition 4: | | Main partition 4: | | Linux swap ( |hdb4) | | Empty ( |hda4) | | | +-------------------------------+ +-------------------------------+ If you want to save partition containing D: drive, you execute savepart.exe -s , then: - choose the second disk, - choose first partition, - choose to save all sectors or only occupied ones (second solution will need less space), - choose to inflate file or not, - choose path and name of file to create (switch free size on drives, but try to choose a drive on first disk for the saving to go faster, so on C:, E: or F:), by example c:\disk_d.par. - if you want to burn the file on a CD you will have to choose a maximum file size of 620 Mb. From there, saving begins. If 620 Mb is not enough to store all data, you will have to give path and name for a second file, then its maximum size, .... Once saving ends, you can create the batch file or not. If you create batch file and burn files onto CD, put batch file with first saving file and do not forget to change path to saved file into batch file. If you want to save the Linux partition, you will have to: - select first disk, - choose the third partition and then continue as in previous case (as Linux partition is on first disk, it is better to create saved file on second disk). 7- Restoring element -------------------- It is the part that is executed when you use -r option or when you select this option when program asks for it. Execution follows below diagram (if not in batch mode): file choice | V destination element choice |<------------------------------+ V | restoring window | +-----------> file choice ------+ V end a) File choice: It the same window as the one used for file choice when saving. Selected file header is checked and an error is given if this one is not correct. Automatic naming can be selected for following filename to be generated automatically (filename must follow rule described into chapter 6.d). b) Destination element choice: This windows gives list of elements that are compatible with those saved into file. You will have to choose one of the elements into this list to do restoring. At the top of window is a description of saved element. Below is the list of compatible elements. "Dis" column gives disk number on which element is. "Support" column gives support type on which element is. "Num" column gives partition number as it is known with Linux in case element is a partition. "L." column gives DOS drive of element if it is a DOS partition. "Id." colum allows to know if element is identical to the one saved. If it is the case an "X" will be set into this column else nothing is written. Size gives element size. By default, it is expressed in Mb, except in cases where it is followed by Kb. Partition name is the label (or volume name). It is given when it can be found. If for DOS drive, there seems to be incoherence between drive letter and partition name, this last one is certainly correct and drive letter wrong. For more details on element compatibility, please read chapter 15. If no compatible element is found, a message is reported to you and program ends. !!!!! Warning !!!!!: -------------------- Restoring data on a partition erases all data currently on chosen element. Moreover, you must NOT choose the disk (when restoring a whole disk) or the partition on which a file used for this restoration is (indeed it will be erased during restoration and so would no more be accessible and it will result into an error and the end of the restoration). A warning window informs you if the selected file is on the disk or partition to restore. This window is only displayed for the first file (as for the following files, you must NOT access the disk or partition you are restoring) and is not displayed in the case you use "-ncd" option. c) Restoring window: This window permits you to follow restoration advancement. Upper progress bar is advancement for file. Lower progress bar is advancement for chosen element. Remaining time is an estimation of remaining time. Its exactness is strongly influenced by the fact that data have been deflated or saving was done only for occupied sectors. Errors list contains list of errors that were detected when writing sectors on disk. If errors are the same that these on saving, there was no consequence (if they are not the same, or if they are fewer or more, you can have lost data: run a program like scandisk to try to resolve this problem). If the element has been saved into several files, you must give them when they are asked to you. While restoring is running, you can not activate Ok button (only cancel button can be activated to stop restoring). When restoring is ended, Ok button becomes active, cancel button inactive, and line marked "State" changes from "Running ..." to "Ended.". !!!!! Warning !!!!!: -------------------- - when choosing next file, you must not access to the drive corresponding to the disk or partition being restored (if it is a DOS partition). Indeed this drive is being written and so the file allocation table is wrong (as if you want to access a file when a drive is being formatted). - once the element is restored, reset your computer if you have restored a DOS partition (or a partition that can be accessed under DOS). This is needed for DOS to update information about this partition. - if you cancel a running restoration, you have to format the destination element (or do a new restoration). - if when saving, you had created saved file on saved partition, after having reseted your computer you have to do a scandisk on restored partition to remove errors on size of created file. - if you restore a partition on another partition than the one that was saved and you have Windows 2000 or XP, you have to update registry for this partition. For this, please read chapter 11. - if the partition you restore is a system partition that is launched using the Windows XP multiboot feature (without being the Windows XP partition) and you restore this partition on another partition than the one that was saved, you have to update the BOOTSECT.DOS file for this partition. For this, please read chapter 12. d) Examples: With partitioning set as into examples of saving a partition, you want to restore partitions previously saved. When restoring partition that contains D: drive, you execute savepart -r and: - choose the file where saving has been done, - choose the partition that you want to restore. If you have saved all sectors, only partition that contains D: drive will be listed (if the 2 hard- drives have the same format and C: and D: drives have the same size, C: drive can be also listed). If you have saved only occupied sectors, partitions containing C:, D:, E: and G: drives can be listed switch the size they have (partition containing F: drive can not be listed as it has not the same file system type). In this case partition that contains D: drive will have an "X" into "Id." column but not others (if the 2 hard drives have the same format and C: and D: drives have the same size, C: drive can also have an "X"). - once the partition is chosen, restoring begins. If saving was done into several files, second file will be asked when the first one is finished, .... Once restoring ends, reboot your computer for DOS to take into account modifications done onto D: drive. If you want to restore the Linux partition, you will have to do the same things as above. In this case only third partition of first disk will be listed as it is the only Linux partition (the Linux swap partition has not the same file system). 8- Copying element ------------------ It is the part executed when you use -c option or when you select this option when program asks for it. Execution follows below diagram: support choice | V source element choice | V [part to save] | V destination element choice | V copying window | V end a) Support choice: Please read same window presentation into "saving element" chapter (chapter 6.a). b) Source element choice: Please read same window presentation into "saving element" chapter (chapter 6.b). c) Part to save: Please read same window presentation into "saving element" chapter (chapter 6.c). d) Destination element choice: Please read same window presentation into "restoring element" chapter (chapter 7.b) with changing all references to "file" by "element to copy". e) Copying window: This window permits you to follow copying advancement. Upper progress bar is advancement for element to copy. Lower progress bar is advancement for destination element. Remaining time is an estimation of remaining time. Its exactness is strongly influenced by the fact that all sectors or only occupied sectors are copied. Errors list is list of errors that were found when reading sectors on element to copy or when writing sectors on destination element. If some errors appear, it is advised to use scandisk or equivalent program on the erroneous element. As long as the copy is running, you can not press Ok button (only cancel button is active to stop copying). Once copying is ended, Ok button becomes active, cancel button inactive and line marked "State" changes from "Running ..." to "Ended.". !!!!! Warning !!!!!: -------------------- - once the element is copied, reset your computer if you have restored a DOS partition (or a partition that can be accessed under DOS). This is needed for DOS to update information about this partition. - if you cancel a running copy, you have to format the destination element (or do a new copy or restoration on it). - if you restore a partition on another partition than the one that was saved and you have Windows 2000 or XP, you have to update registry for this partition. For this, please read chapter 11. - if the partition you restore is a system partition that is launched using the Windows XP multiboot feature (without being the Windows XP partition) and you restore this partition on another partition than the one that was saved, you have to update the BOOTSECT.DOS file for this partition. For this, please read chapter 12. f) Examples: With partitioning used into examples of saving a partition, you want to copy partition containing D: drive onto partition containing E: drive (with the condition that size is compatible). For that purpose, you run savepart -c and: - select second hard drive, - select the first partition, - choose to save only occupied sectors (for the copy to be possible on a partition that has a different format), - choose the destination partition. Partitions containing C:, E: and G: drives will be listed if their size is compatible. Partition containing D: drive will not be listed, as it is the partition to copy. Partition containing F: drive will not be listed, as it has not the save file system type. From here, copying run. Once this is ended, reboot your computer. 9- Copying file --------------- This is the part executed when you use -d option or when you select this option when program asks for it. This part allows you to copy files with modifying their deflate rate or maximum size. Program begins with asking you the source filename (please read chapter 7.a), the name and maximum size of destination file and deflate rate (please read chapters 6.d, 6.e and 6.f). The copying window displays advancement for source file into upper progress bar and advancement for destination file into lower progress bar. If several source or destination files are needed, they will be asked to you when they are needed. Remarks: -------- - only files created by this program can be used with this part. - program checks that destination file has not the same name as source file to avoid source file to be erased before being copied. Nevertheless it can not check that destination file erase another source file than the one in use, so be careful to not confuse source and destination file. - you can use any other compression program to do that, but you will have to deflate files before being able to use them with this program, that is not the case for this option. 10- Verifying file ------------------ This is the part that is executed when you use -t option or when you select this option when program asks for it. This allows checking that saving file are correct. This consists into checking header of files, size and checksum of data (once they are inflated if they are deflated). If a saving was done in several files, you are obliged to check all files. No data is written on disk or is modified into files. Execution begins with asking source filename (please read chapter 7.a). The checking window gives into the upper progress bar the state of the check for the current file. If saving was done into several files, following files will be asked to you. 11- Updating Windows 2000/XP registry ------------------------------------- This is the part that is executed when you use -u option or when you select this option when program asks for it. Windows 2000 and XP store partition position into registry in order to keep association between a partition and corresponding driver letter. Partition position is composed of two parts: disk number that is stored into MBR (4 bytes) and offset of first byte of partition on disk (8 bytes). So if you copy a partition on another disk (without copying MBR) or if you move begin of a partition, you have to update these information into registry for each partition you moved. In case of restoring a partition when it has not been moved, this is not needed. Execution is composed of 2 parts: first to give where Windows is installed such as program is able to find registry file, second to give partition to update into this registry. If you copy the Windows 2000/XP partition, the Windows installation that should be updated is the one that was the destination of copy. Execution follows below diagram: support choice where Windows is installed | V element choice where Windows is installed | V directory where Windows is installed | V disk choice where partition to update is | V partition to update choice | V drive letter of partition to update | V confirmation | V end a) Support choice where Windows is installed: You have to choose disk or DOS devices list where Windows installation which registry should be updated is. b) Element choice where Windows is installed: You have to choose the partition (if a disk has been chosen into first window) or the DOS device (if DOS devices has been chosen into first window) where Windows installation which registry should be updated is. c) Directory where Windows is installed: You have to give Windows installation directory. As a rule, this directory is called "WINDOWS", unless you give another name when installing it. If you give a wrong directory name, or if installed Windows version is not correct, you will get an error message telling you that registry file has not been found. d) Disk choice where partition to update is: You have to choose disk on which is partition you want to update definition into registry. e) Partition to update choice: You have to choose partition for which you want to update definition into registry. f) Drive letter of partition to update: This window shows list of driver letter that could be modified with their current definition. First column is driver letter, second column is disk identifier where corresponding partition is and third column is beginning byte of partition on disk. Last column displays the two previous columns as regedit does. You have to choose into this list the drive letter you want to affect to partition selected with two previous windows. Program will modify the corresponding definition for this letter with value defined on top of window. g) Confirmation: Program asks you confirmation of registry modification. It gives you key name that will be modified, its previous and new value. A value is a 12 hexadecimal numbers, four first being disk number, height last offset of partition on disk (it is the same format as the last column of previous window). 12- Updating BOOTSECT.DOS file ------------------------------ This is the part that is executed when you use -b option or when you select this option when program asks for it. In order to be able to manage multi-boot with another DOS or Windows version, Windows XP saves the boot sector of other Windows version into BOOTSECT.DOS file on the same partition and modifies this boot sector to set a new one (this one asks for the Windows version to run depending on BOOT.INI file content). So if you copy on another disk or move the begin of the partition where other Windows version is, this file should be modified to take into account this modification. This option is for this purpose. Warning: this option modifies only some parameters into BOOTSECT.DOS to take into account modifications that can have be done into element boot sector, it does not allow creating or completing a BOOTSECT.DOS file. Execution allows choosing partition where BOOTSECT.DOS file is to update it accordingly to current boot sector of element. Execution follows below diagram: support choice where BOOTSECT.DOS file is | V element choice where BOOTSECT.DOS file is | V confirmation | V end a) Support choice where BOOTSECT.DOS file is: You have to choose disk, floppy disk or DOS devices list on which BOOTSECT.DOS file to modify is. b) Element choice where BOOTSECT.DOS file is: You have to choose partition (if a disk has been chosen in first window) or DOS device (if DOS devices has been chosen in first window) on which is the BOOTSECT.DOS file to modify. You will get an error message if chosen element does not have a BOOTSECT.DOS file or if this one has a wrong size or does not contain a boot sector signature. c) Confirmation: Program asks you to confirm the BOOTSECT.DOS file modification. If you confirm, it will be modified to update some parameters accordingly to those into current element boot sector. 13- Simulating an element ------------------------- This part is about use of driver (DRVPART.SYS) and about "-m" and "-i" options of savepart. The goal of this driver is primarily to allow access to a partition contained into saved file in order to recover some files. a) Use of driver: DRVPART.SYS is a DOS driver that allows simulating that a new drive exists. This drive is simulated with saved file created previously. As all DOS driver, DRVPART.SYS must be loaded into memory owing to CONFIG.SYS file. This text file is on the boot disk (either C: or A: depending on whether you boot from hard disk or floppy disk). For the driver to be loaded you have to add at the end of this file the line: DEVICE=<location>\DRVPART.SYS <options> with <location> equal to directory where the file DRVPART.SYS is. Once this line has been added, the next time you boot your computer, you will have a new drive (the drive letter is defined by DOS and is the next letter following those of your last drive). DRVPART.SYS can have 2 options: - the first give size of sectors in bytes. It must be between 512 and 32768 and must be a multiple of 512. If this option is not given, a default size of 512 bytes is used (it is the most common value). - the second gives the memory size in Kb that is always used by this program to be able to run. This must be equal or more than 1024. If this option is not given, a size of 1024 Kb is used. If you want to give this option, you must give the sectors size. Examples: --------- DEVICE=C:\DRVPART.SYS Driver is loaded with default value of 512 bytes for sectors size and 1024 Kb for memory. DEVICE=C:\DRVPART.SYS 512 4096 Driver is loaded with a sectors size of 512 bytes and an allocated memory of 4096 Kb. Memory permanently used is memory used to stock temporarily sectors asked by others programs. Switch this need, this size can dynamically be increased/decreased (but never goes bellow the size defined when loading). The worse case of memory use is certainly when a program want to know free size on drive (as when you do a "dir"). Memory used by driver is XMS or EMS memory (depending on what is present). These types of memory is standard memory (you do not need specific hardware), it is called XMS or EMS depending on the way it is managed. XMS memory is managed by HIMEM.SYS driver (a DEVICE=<location>\HIMEM.SYS line has to be present on beginning of CONFIG.SYS file) and EMS memory is managed by EMM386.EXE driver (or some other that does the same thing) (a DEVICE=<location>\EMM386.EXE line has to appear into CONFIG.SYS file just after the one containing HIMEM.SYS). If no one of these two types of memory is present, driver will not be loaded. To be noticed that using EMS memory can limit useful memory size to 32 Mb. Driver can generate following messages when loading: - "Driver has been initialised. It simulates drive <letter>:.": driver has been correctly loaded and it simulates drive having <letter> letter. - "Parameter for size of sectors is not correct: it must be between 512 and 32768 and be a multiple of 512.": you have to modify the first parameter into loading line from CONFIG.SYS file to give a correct value. - "Parameter for allocated memory size is not correct: it must be bigger than 1024.": you have to modify the second parameter into loading line from CONFIG.SYS file to give a correct value. - "Memory could not be allocated: you need XMS or EMS memory.": driver did not find EMS or XMS memory. You have to add into your CONFIG.SYS file at least the line that allows loading XMS memory. If one of the three last messages is displayed, driver is not loaded. b) Simulating an element: Once the driver is loaded into memory, "-m" and "-i" options of savepart can be used (or associated actions appear into list of actions if you do not provide an action option). The first option ("savepart -m") or the choice "Simulate an element" into actions allow you to give the list of files to use in order to simulate element they contain. Execution is done in the same way than when testing a saving file (chapter 10). Once execution has correctly ended, you will be able to use added drive as being the partition that is into saving file (as long as no element is simulated, trying to access this drive generates an error). The second option ("savepart -i") or the choice "Get information from driver" into actions allow getting information from driver (drive simulated, sector size and files used if an element is simulated) and stopping simulating an element if there is one simulated. When simulating an element, more EMS/XMS memory can be needed by the driver. Unfortunately running savepart when only XMS memory is available, does that savepart uses the whole memory and it is not possible to allocate more memory for the driver. In this case you will certainly get a "You do not have enough EMS or XMS memory: <n> Kb free memory are needed." error. In this case you have to use ALLOCXMS.COM program with giving it <n> as parameter in order to memory to be allocated before running savepart, then you can run savepart again (example: ALLOCXMS.COM 1024 will allocate 1024 Kb memory). As this size depend on the partition simulated, it can not be be known (and so allocated) sooner. ALLOCXMS can display following messages: - "Memory allocated": memory has been allocated and you can run savepart again. - "DrvPart driver could not be found": you have forgotten to load the driver into your CONFIG.SYS file (note: in this case, options to manage drive simulation are not available into savepart). - "DrvPart driver into memory has not the same version as AllocXMS": versions of DRVPART.SYS and ALLOCXMS.COM are not the same. You must use programs having the same version (it is true also for savepart). - "An element is currently simulated": you have to stop simulating the element by using "Stop simulating element" button into the window giving information on driver into savepart. - "XMS memory driver could not be found": you do not have loaded a XMS driver into your CONFIG.SYS file, so you can not use XMS memory. - "Parameter is not correct": given parameter is not correct: it must be a positive integer. - "Such an amount of memory could not be allocated": XMS driver does not allow allocating such an amount of memory. If this size is not over memory available into your computer, using a more recent driver or not using EMS memory can solve this problem. c) Remarks: - This driver allows simulating only FAT elements or elements where all sectors were saved. In this last case, the fact that it is a FAT element is not checked, but DOS will certainly refuses to access it if it is not the case. - Files used for simulation must not be compressed. - All files used have to be always accessible to avoid an error (example: if files are on several CDs, you must have either several CDs readers or copy file on your hard disk for them to be read simultaneously). First files will be used more often than last file, so put them on the faster support. - simulated element is set as read-only. So all try to write on them will generate an error. If ever you get an error like "Unable to write on drive <letter>" with letter equal to the simulated drive, you have to answer "Fail". - This driver can be run only in DOS mode. If ever Windows is started, it frees used memory and deactivate itself. Under Windows you will get a new drive, but you can not use it. - Using driver will slow your computer and use memory. So it is better to use it only when you need it (so modify your CONFIG.SYS file each time or use a specific floppy disk, with this second case being better). - Accessing simulated drive is slower than accessing others drives. - The driver will run correctly only for programs that use peripherics into a standard way. So it can be normal that some specific programs generate errors. - If a program terminates in an abnormal way, it can let driver in a bad state (trying to access simulated drive generates an error). In this case, you just have to run and quit any program for the simulated drive to be accessible as soon as the program has ended. - Driver can increase memory used depending on its need. If a program use the whole available memory (savepart is in this case when only XMS memory is present), you can get errors when accessing simulated drive. In this case you can try to increase the permanently used memory size with the second parameter on the loading line of DRVPART.SYS into CONFIG.SYS file. Obviously this will be taken into account only at next boot of computer. - When using savepart access to simulated drive is not allowed. - If you want to simulate another element than the one simulated, you must not run savepart a first time to stop simulating element, then a second time to simulate a new one. You can directly choose to simulate the new one (it will stop simulating the first one). This implies that it is not possible to simulate several elements simultaneously (even with loading driver several times). - You can not run a program that is on the simulated drive. You have to copy it on another drive before. - Driver, savepart and allocxms versions must be the same. This is why they have all the same version number. This version number is checked when these programs work together and they do not communicate if versions are not the same. - Because a new drive is created, the letter assigned to your CD reader can be modified. - DRVPART.SYS is not needed to run savepart. You must use it only if you want to use options to simulate an element. 14- Options file contents ------------------------- Options file allows you to restore (or save again) element you have saved. In this case, with using savepart with the -f <options file name> option, parameters to save/restore element are read into file instead of being asked to you. Contents of this file can be not fully filled (in which case missing parameters will be asked), but in this case some rules described below must be followed. Options file is a text file that gives options to use. Each option must be alone on a line. If the line begins with ";", its a comment line (it is not analysed). Option content can be defined with an environment variable. For this purpose the environment variable must be given between % (example: file=%CONF%.PAR, %CONF% will be replaced by the content of CONF environment variable). If environment variable does not exist an error will be issued. To be able to give the % character inside option content, you have to double it (example: file=WITH%%.PAR, used file name will be WITH%.PAR). Options are: - mouse=[yes|no|poll]: method of use of mouse (same as -cm|-nm|-pm option on command line). - check_drive=no: check that created/read file is not on saved/restored element is disabled (same as -ncd option on command line). - verify_disk_write=no: check that sectors are correctly written is disabled (same as -nvd option on command line). - verify_file_write=no: check that files are correctly written is disabled (same as -nvf option on command line). - lang=[en|fr|fr_2]: language choice (same as -l option on command line). - user_interface=[console|text|text_bios]: user interface choice (same as -cui|-tui|-bui option on command line). - disk=<number>: gives the disk number to use. This number must be between 0 and number of disks - 1. When saving, this option takes place of first window. When restoring, this option reduces the search of element to restore corresponding to those saved, to elements of the given disk (in other case, element is searched on all disks). This option can not be given if floppy= or device= option is given. - floppy=<number>: gives the floppy drive number to use. This number must be between 0 and number of floppy drive - 1. When saving, this option takes place of first window. When restoring, this option reduces the search of element to restore corresponding to those saved, to elements of the given floppy drive (in other case, element is searched on all floppy drives). This option can not be given if disk= or device= option is given. - device=[A-Z]: gives the DOS device letter to use. When saving, this option takes place of two first windows. When restoring, this option reduces the search of element to restore corresponding to those saved, to elements of the given DOS device (in other case, element is searched on all DOS devices). This option can not be given if disk= or floppy= option is given. - main_part=<number>: gives the number of the extended partition to use. This number must be between 1 and 4. If element to save/restore is directly related to disk, this option must not be given. For this option to be used, "disk=" option must be given. - ext_part=<number>: gives the number of the extended partition to use. This number must be between 1 and the number of extended partition corresponding to main partition. For this option to be used, "main_part=" option must be given. You do not have to give this option if you want to save a main partition. "main_part=" and "ext_part=" options are used in place of second window into saving, and "disk=", "main_part=" and "ext_part=" options are used in place of second window into restoring. - def_level=<number>: gives the deflating level to use. This number must be between 0 and 9. When saving, this option is used in place of third window. When restoring, this option is not used (so can be not given). If this option is not given and a file name is given (see "file=" option below), deflating level used is level 0 (no deflating). - file=<file name>: gives the file to use to save/restore element. This option can be given several times in case saving/restoring need several files. In this case, options must be given in order you want files to be used. - max_size=<number> [kb|Mb]: gives the maximum size you want a file to do. If kb|Mb is not given, size is in Mb. If size is in kb, it must be between 1 and 9999 kb, if it is in Mb it must be between 1 and 2047 Mb. When execution is done, this size will be limited to the free space on disk where to create the file. This option can be given several times if saving/restoring need several files. In this case this option must be given in the same order as file names are given. If this option is given less time than number of file names, the last option will be used for all remaining files. If this option is given more times than number of file names, remaining options will not be used. If this option is not given and some file names are given, maximum size of 2047 Mb is used. When restoring this option is not used (so can be not given). - filesystem=[no|fat12|fat16|fat32|ext2|ntfs|MBR|firstsect|parttable|fat12mem|fat16mem|fat32mem]: gives the file system type to use when saving. If this parameter is equal to "no", all sectors are saved without considering file system that is on the partition. If this parameter is equal to one of the others possibilities, program checks that partition to save contains a file system of the asked type. If it is the case, only occupied sectors will be saved. If it is not the case, an error is displayed. fat12mem, fat16mem and fat32mem options allow to save only occupied sectors and to create saving file on saved partition. When restoring, this option is not used (it is the value defined into saved file that is used). - quit=[yes|no|nobadsector]: this options permits to exit program automatically. If it is equal to "yes", program exits at end of saving/restoring/copying (be aware that in the case of saving, if one of the option used from option file has been modified, window asking if you want to create option file will still appear). It this option is equal to "nobadsector", program will exit only if no bad sector has been found (in other case, user can read errors list on screen, then click "Ok" button). If this option is equal to "no" or is not given, user has to click "Ok" button to exit. - reboot=[yes|no]: this option allows rebooting computer automatically at end of program execution. It is active only when saving or restoring a partition (copying does not take an option file and it is not useful to reboot computer into others cases). If "quit" option is equal to "no" or "nobadsector" with some bad sectors or is not given, program will reboot only once the user has clicked on "Ok" button. If "quit" option is equal to "yes" or "nobadsector" without any bad sector, reboot will be done at once. - automatic_naming=[yes|no]: this options allows using automatic naming. If no file= option is given, this will only check the automatic naming checkbox when asking for first file name. If one or several file= options are given, all these options will be first used and if it is needed to have more files, program will use last file name with changing its extension with file number following rules described into chapter 6.d (there was no check if file already exists or not). - windows_disk=<number>: gives the disk number where Windows is installed. This option is equivalent to the "disk=" one but is used in case of update of Windows 2000/XP registry to give disk number where Windows is installed (see chapter 11.a). - window_main_part=<number>: gives the main partition number where Windows is installed. This option is equivalent to the "main_part=" one but is used in case of update of Windows 2000/XP registry to give main partition number where Windows is installed (see chapter 11.b). - window_ext_part=<number>: gives the extended partition number where Windows is installed. This option is equivalent to the "ext_part=" one but is used in case of update of Windows 2000/XP registry to give extended partition number where Windows is installed (see chapter 11.b). - window_device=[A-Z]: gives the DOS device letter where Windows is installed. This option is equivalent to the "device=" one but is used in case of update of Windows 2000/XP registry to give DOS device where Windows is installed (see chapter 11.b). - window_dir=<string>: gives the directory where Windows is installed (see chapter 11.c). - part_letter=[A-Z]: gives drive letter that should be modified into registry for chosen partition (see chapter 11.f). Remarks: -------- - when using batch mode, no confirm is asked when a file must be erased, when element is restored, when registry or BOOTSECT.DOS file is modified. - if you do not give enough file name (by example, you give only one file name when restoring, when two files have been creating when saving), or a file is wrong (by example, you give file in wrong order or file name is wrong), missing or incorrect file names will be asked as in normal mode. - if an option is not valid, program ends. To check your option file you can use savepart with "-t" option. - when restoring, if several files are needed and are stored on removable media (and the program is able to detect this), program ask to change media in place of displaying an error and asking for next filename. Examples: --------- If we use partitioning given into saving a partition samples, and look at a batch file created when saving partition containing D: drive, we will have (considering that all sectors were saved and two files are needed): ;------------------------------- ; Parameters for D: drive ; On first disk disk=0 ; Main partition 1 main_part=1 ; No deflating ; (remark: in this case this option can be not given) def_level=0 ; Files: file=c:\driv_d_1.par file=c:\driv_d_2.par ; Same size for all files ; (remark: in this case the second line can be not given) max_size=620 max_size=620 ; All sectors are saved filesystem=no ; End of file ;------------------------------- If you call this file drive_d.cfg, you will have to enter "savepart -s -f drive_d.cfg" to save the partition or "savepart -r -f drive_d.cfg" to restore it. Your are not obliged to give the -s/-r flag in which case what you want to do will be asked to you, then option file will be taken into account. File below will permit you to save/restore Linux partition (all sectors of this partition): ;----------------------------------- ; Parameters for Linux partition ; On first disk disk=0 ; Main partition number 3: main_part=3 ; Standard deflating: def_level=6 ; File: file=c:\linux.par max_size=2047 ; All sectors are saved filesystem=no ; End of file ;------------------------------- If you change filesystem parameter from "no" to "ext2" in above file, only occupied sectors of partition will be saved. If you have two disks with the first one that has a partitioning format that is not recognised by savepart, you can use following file to force program to only use the second hard drive: ;------------------------------- ; Partitioning format of the first disk not recognised ; => we will use only the second one disk=1 ; End of file ;------------------------------- To modify registry automatically, you have to give all options to define element to modify and element where Windows is installed. As an example: ;----------------------------------- ; Modification of registry for logical partition on second disk with ; having Windows installed on first partition of first disk. ; Parameters for Windows installation windows_disk=0 windows_main_part=1 windows_dir=windows ; Parameters for partition definition to modify into registry disk=1 main_part=2 ext_part=1 part_letter=G ; End of file ;----------------------------------- 15- About what can be saved --------------------------- This chapter describes some points specific to each type of element that can be saved. It describes in particular restrictions that are checked by program when restoring an element. a) Whole disk: This is about saving/restoring whole disk without taking into account its organization. When saving you should not create the saving file on one of the partition of the disk, else you can get incoherency when restoring. When restoring you should not use files that are on this disk as it is fully written and so files would be erased before they were read (so restoring will end with an error and files will be lost). Restoring is only available on a disk with a similar physical definition. For this purpose it must have the same access type, the same number of heads, of sector per track and have sectors that have the same size. It must equally have the same number or more cylinders (so the disk will have the same size or be bigger). In the case it has more cylinders, last cylinders will be not allocated (so be left empty) and you will have to create a new partition or increase the last one to use them. If disk size seems to be incorrect (by example it is displayed of 8Gb when the disk does 20 Gb), you should not save this disk because saving will not be complete (in the example, the last 12 Gb will not be saved). This comes from a bad detection of the disk (by example on the way to access it). The use of a disk manager program can solve this problem. b) The Master Boot Record (MBR): This sector is the first one of the disk. It contains: - boot code used when computer is started. - main partitions declaration. When saving it, this sector is fully saved, but when restoring only part corresponding to boot code is restored. Part corresponding to partition table is not modified else you will loose all partitions of disk. Disk identification used by Windows NT/2000 and XP to distinguish disk is restored also. When restoring, the only constraint on destination disk is that it must have the same sector size. You can need to save the Master Boot Record to restore it on another disk or in case of a boot virus. This is the same as doing "fdisk /mbr" if you have a boot sector written by Windows 9x/Me. This allows also to restore a boot loader in the case you install an operating system that modify boot sector without care. Boot code is restored like it is, so if it contains some code linked to disk format, this is not updated event if this sector is restored on another disk. You can not save the MBR if it is considered has not valid (in this case this choice will not be displayed). c) First sectors of disk: This is all sectors that are before the first partition. This includes Master Boot Record. This last one is restored as in the previous case (only boot code is restored). When restoring constraints on destination disk is that it must have the same sector size and have a valid partition table. If number of sectors before first partition is not the same between saved and restored disk, only common part (so the minimum number of sectors) will be restored. You can need to save all sectors before first partition in place of only MBR in the case you have a boot loader that uses these sectors to store its program. It this is restored onto another disk than origine one or on a disk with different partitions, restored sectors will not be modified to take into account this new definition. You will not see this option if MBR or partition table is not valid. d) Partition table: This is all sectors that describe partitions table. They include MBR and all sectors that describe extended partition. When saving sectors are fully saved, but when restoring only part corresponding to partition table is restored (so boot code is not modified). Constraints on destination disk are the same than when saving/restoring whole disk. When restoring partition table, you will loose the whole contents of the disk; not because it is written except sectors of partition table, but because the way it is organized is modified. Also it is better that the saving file is not on destination disk because the risk that it can be erased exists (it is low because file should be too big to be stored into memory and that one of the sector of partition table is one where the file is stored). e) Partitions (all sectors): In this case all sectors of a partition are saved without taking into account if they are occupied or not. When saving be aware to not create saving file on saved partition (for same reasons as when saving whole disk). This is equally true when saving only occupied sectors except when choosing to save a partition on itself. When restoring you should not use files that are on the restored partition (for same reasons as when restoring whole disk). This is equally true when restoring only occupied sectors. Restoring will be available only on a partition that is on a disk that has the same constraints as when restoring whole disk. Moreover partition must be on the same place on disk (it must begin and end at the same place than saved one). To end, partition type has to be compatible with type of saved partition. For this, here is the array giving compatibility between partition types: +---------+--------+----------------------+ | Type | Number | Designation | +---------+--------+----------------------+ | | 0x01 | DOS FAT-12 | | FAT 12 | 0x11 | DOS FAT-12 hidden | | | 0xc1 | DR-DOS FAT-12 | +---------+--------+----------------------+ | | 0x04 | DOS FAT-16 < 32Mo | | | 0x06 | DOS FAT-16 >= 32Mo | | FAT 16 | 0x14 | FAT-16 < 32Mo hidden | | | 0x16 | DOS FAT-16 hidden | | | 0xc4 | DR-DOS FAT-16 | | | 0xc6 | DR-DOS,NT | +---------+--------+----------------------+ | VFAT 16 | 0x0e | Win95 VFAT-16 | | | 0x1e | Win95 VFAT-16 hidden | +---------+--------+----------------------+ | | 0x0b | Win95 FAT-32 (b) | | FAT 32 | 0x0c | Win95 FAT-32 (c) | | | 0x1b | W95 FAT32 hidden(b) | | | 0x1c | W95 FAT32 hidden(c) | +---------+--------+----------------------+ | NTFS | 0x07 | QNX,OS/2,NT,Unix | | | 0x17 | OS/2,NT | +---------+--------+----------------------+ | ext2 | 0x83 | Linux ext2fs/xiafs | +---------+--------+----------------------+ So if you save a partition of type Win95 FAT32 (b), you can restore it on a Win95 FAT32 (c) partition (theoretically, difference between the 2 is hard disk access (CHS or extended), but Windows seems not to check partition type and check access type when booting). Please note that partition type is not modified into partitions table (so if you restore a Win95 FAT32 (b) partition on a Win95 FAT32 (c) partition, this last one will still be a Win95 FAT32 (c) partition into partitions table). Saving all sectors of a partition can be usefull in case of a partition for which saving only occupied sectors is not available or in the case where filesystem is too much damaged for saving only occupied sectors to work or if you do not have enough memory. f) Partitions (only occupied sectors): This part describes how works saving only occupied sectors for partitions that are known by this program. Following parts will describe some specific things for each partition type (FAT, ext2fs, NTFS). When saving/restoring occupied sectors of a partition, it is necessary to know how data are stored on it to know if a sector is occupied or not. It is for this reason that this possibility is not applied to all file system, but only for those I found documentation and that I have to perform tests. For those file systems, some checks are done to verify that it will be correctly recognised (if it is not, the window asking you if you want to save only occupied sectors will not be displayed). Saving/restoring of occupied sectors allows saving space (saving file is smaller), to save time (less data are read) and to do restore on a partition with a different size or that is on a hard disk different from those where was source partition or at a different place. Remaining constraints are that disk must have the same sector size as origin one and partition types must be compatible. Partition needs also to respect some minimal and maximal sizes (they are described below for each filesystem type). Remarks on where created/read file are are the same as for a partition where all sectors are saved. Saving/restoring of occupied sectors keeps data sectors structure as it was defined when saving. If the partition is restored on a partition with a size different from original one, file system sectors can be modified to take into account this size change. Example: -------- With a FAT partition, consider there was following structure (each letter is a sector with its content, number of sectors given is not representative of a true FAT structure): RRRRRRFFFF R: reserved sectors (boot sector and others) FFFFDDDD.. F: FAT sectors (sectors that allow to know if clusters, DDDDDDDD.. that are groups of sectors, are occupied) ........DD D: data sectors DDDDDDDDDD .: empty sectors DD....DDDD This partition is 60 sectors long. If you want to restore it on a partition that does 120 sectors, you will get following result: RRRRRRFFFF FFFFFFFFFF FFDDDD..DD DDDDDD.... ......DDDD DDDDDDDDDD ....DDDD.. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Number of reserved sectors has not been modified, number of FAT sectors has grown because there was more accessible data sectors. Number of data sectors has grown, but their organisation has not been modified (only empty sectors have been added at end). In this example, it is not possible to restore this partition on a smaller partition because last sector of partition is occupied. To avoid this problem you have to use a defragmenter before saving in order to get following structure: RRRRRRFFFF FFFFDDDDDD DDDDDDDDDD DDDDDDDDDD DDDD...... .......... In this case, partition can be restored on a partition with 44 sectors (certainly less, as number of data sectors is reduced and so number of FAT sector will be reduced, and a partition with 42 sectors can certainly be used). To know minimum and maximum partition size you can use when restoring a partition where only occupied sectors were saved, you can: - either creates the batch file, in which case these sizes are written at begin of file into description. - or run savepart -r with choosing the saved file. When the window where you have to choose the partition to restore is displayed, it will contain a line with minimum and maximum sizes allowed for partition. Then you can cancel restoring to avoid doing it uselessly. g) FAT (12, 16 and 32) partitions (DOS/Windows): All FAT12 and FAT16 partitions are recognised. FAT32 partitions are recognised only for version 0 of this file system (I did not know other version). FAT partitions group data sectors into groups called clusters. When restoring this type of partition, cluster size is not modified and FAT type is not modified. Because of FAT structure, partitions of this type have to respect some size constraints that are summarised into following table: +----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+ | Clusters size | 512 bytes | 1 Kbytes | 2 Kbytes | | Partition size | Min. | Max. | Min. | Max. | Min. | Max. | +----------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ | FAT12 | 2 Kb | 2 Mb | 4 Kb | 4 Mb | 8 Kb | 8 Mb | | FAT16 | 2 Mb | 32 Mb | 4 Mb | 64 Mb | 8 Mb | 128 Mb | | FAT32 | 32 Mb | 128 Gb | 64 Mb | 256 Gb | 128 Mb | 512 Gb | +----------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ +----------------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+ | Clusters size | 4 Kbytes | 8 Kbytes | 16 Kbytes | | Partition size | Min. | Max. | Min. | Max. | Min. | Max. | +----------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ | FAT12 | 16 Kb | 16 Mb | 32 Kb | 32 Mb | 64 Kb | 64 Mb | | FAT16 | 16 Mb | 256 Mb | 32 Mb | 512 Mb | 64 Mb | 1 Gb | | FAT32 | 256 Mb | 1 Tb | 512 Mb | 2 Tb | 1 Tb | 4 Tb | +----------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ +----------------+-----------------+ | Clusters size | 32 Kbytes | | Partition size | Min. | Max. | +----------------+--------+--------+ | FAT12 | 128 Kb | 128 Mb | | FAT16 | 128 Mb | 2 Gb | | FAT32 | 2 Tb | 8 Tb | +----------------+--------+--------+ So with this table, you see it is not possible to define a FAT16 partition with less than 16 Mb and more than 256 Mb if its cluster size is of 4 Kb. When restoring, only partitions that respect these constraints are listed into compatible partitions. Remarks: -------- - as it has been said before, to restore a partition on a smaller partition, last sectors of partition must not be occupied. For this purpose you have to use a defragmenter in full defragmentation mode. You have to check that the defragmenter put all files at begin of partition (some files are sometimes let at end like by example the image.idx file created by Norton Image. It can be erased before doing save (be aware to remove system and hidden attributes), then created again once the saving is done). - if you restore the partition containing C: drive on a different partition, it can be needed to activate the partition if it is not already to set it bootable (with FDISK, choose "Activate partition" option). You can also have to update MBR (either with copying original MBR or with using "fdisk /mbr"). If this partition is a partition used into Windows 2000/XP multiboot (without being the XP partition), you have also to update the BOOTSECT.DOS file. It can be also needed to use a floppy boot disk with SYS.COM on it, to install boot on partition (with doing a "sys c:" from floppy disk). - if you restore a partition on a different partition, references into Windows registry that are to saved partition will be wrong. In case of Windows 2000/XP, you can update registry with keeping the same drive letter. For others Windows version, this can not be done. - if bad sectors are found into FAT (or boot sector copy for FAT32) when saving, their content is replaced by the content of their copy into the saving file to avoid problems when restoring this partition if it is done on one that has not these bad sectors. h) Ext2fs/ext3fs partitions (Linux): Ext2fs/ext3fs partitions that are recognised are 0 and 1 version. In a similar way than for FAT file system, ext2 file system groups data sectors into groups called blocs. As for FAT, bloc size can not be modified when restoring a partition. Switch this blocs size, you will have some size constraints. These size constraints come from a different need than for FAT partition. They define only a maximum partition size switch that size of the saved partition (there was no minimum size). +----------------------+----------+----------+----------+ | Blocs size | 1 Kbytes | 2 Kbytes | 4 Kbytes | +----------------------+----------+----------+----------+ | | 256 Mb | 2 Gb | 16 Gb | | | 512 Mb | 4 Gb | 32 Gb | | Maximum partition | 1 Gb | 8 Gb | 64 Gb | | | 2 Gb | 16 Gb | 128 Gb | | | 4 Gb | 32 Gb | 256 Gb | | size | 8 Gb | 64 Gb | 512 Gb | | | 16 Gb | 128 Gb | 1 Tb | | | 32 Gb | 256 Gb | 2 Tb | | | 64 Gb | 512 Gb | 4 Tb | +----------------------+----------+----------+----------+ By example, if you have a 3 Gb partition with 2 Kb blocs, you would not be authorised to restore it on a partition that does more than 4 Gb (but you can restore it on a partition having a size between 0 and 4 Gb, lower limit will be set by the number of last used bloc). Remarks: -------- - I did never try a Linux defragmenter and I am not sure it will do a full defragmentation. Because of the way file are managed, it is highly probable that only file will be defragmented (they are moved such as all their data are stored on following sectors, but are not put at begin of partition). So it is very difficult to get a Linux partition with their last sectors unoccupied (so it will be difficult to restore a Linux partition on a smaller partition). - if you restore the root partition ("/") on a different partition (or if you have compiled a new kernel between saving and restoring), you will need a rescue disk to install your boot loader. Once the rescue disk has booted, create /mnt/disk directory if it does not exist, mount the partition with "mount -t ext2 /dev/<partition> /mnt/disk", then change your boot loader file (/mnt/disk/etc/lilo.conf by example) and install it back with "chroot /mnt/disk <boot loader command>" (<boot load command> = lilo by example). - if you restore a partition on a different one, do not forget to modify your /etc/fstab file (it is the file that gives partitions with their mount directory) to take into account this change. - Ext3fs partitions are recognised as ext2fs partitions if journal is on the same partition. If journal is on a self contained partition, base partition can be saved as an ext2fs one, partition containing journal must be saved with all sectors (it is not important as journal partition is not very big and is swiftly full). Moreover in this last case, you must maintain coherency between the two partitions. i) NTFS partitions: NTFS partitions are recognised for 1.1, 1.2, 2, 3.0 and 3.1 versions (this number is not NT version but filesystem version (1.1, 1.2, 2 <=> NT, 3.0 <=> Windows 2000, 3.1 <=> Windows XP)). As Microsoft did never release a NTFS specification, this filesystem is not fully known and there still was some unknown part. Nevertheless, part concerning sector use is known and so can be used. But there was some feature of NTFS that I did not accept (it is the case of partitions that have heavy fragmented filesystem). On the contrary of FAT and ext2 partitions, there was no size constraint: only size limit is linked to last allocated sector for lower limit and for upper limit to limit of filesystem or to a too much fragmentation. So it is not possible to give a size constraint as in others cases. Remarks: -------- - as for Linux, NTFS defragmenter does certainly not group occupied sectors at beginning of partition. So it can be difficult to restore/copy a partition on a smaller one. - in some cases, program can return that it can not restore the partition on another one because of size problem. In this case, you have to try to restore it on a smaller partition (if it can be done) or bigger. This case will be exceptional and due to some full and heavy fragmented partition. - saving/restoring a NTFS partition needs more memory than for others cases. If you have the "not enough memory" error and if you have more than 32 Mb memory and use EMM386, you can get more memory with disabling EMM386 (it limits memory size to 32 Mb). To perform this, you have to add a "rem " at beginning of line concerning EMM386 info C:\CONFIG.SYS file (or A:\CONFIG.SYS file if you use a floppy disk to boot), then restart your computer. Once saving/restoring is done, you can remove the "rem " such as EMM386 will be activated again at next boot. - if you restore a partition on a different partition, references into registry that are to saved partition will be wrong. In case of Windows 2000/XP, you can update registry with keeping the same drive letter. For others Windows version, this can not be done. - if you save your system partition, then restore it into another partition, you have to update the registry. You can also need to update your boot for this new location to be taken into account (as for the BOOT.INI file). For Windows XP, you have to boot with Windows XP CDROM or the 6 floppy disk downloadable on Microsoft website and choose repair option. Once you have the prompt, tools to be used are fixmbr, fixboot and bootcfg. The first one is to update the first sector of the disk (in case this one was never used as a system disk), the second one is to update boot sector of partition (this is thorically not needed), the last one is to configure your boot options (BOOT.INI file). You can type "help <command>" to get more information on these commands. But despite all this, because of protection mechanism that are set and of lack of knowledge about this system, it can not work (but only in the case of a restoring on another disk, in case of a restoring on a previous version, there will be no problem). A last try that could be done in this case is to download the "sysprep" utility on Microsoft website and use it before doing the save. j) Floppy disks: 360 Kb, 720 Kb, 1.2 Mb, 1.44 Mb and 2.88 Mb floppy disks can be saved. But only floppy disks that are correctly formatted and have 512 bytes sectors can be saved. Floppy disk size can not be known (knowing its type 5"1/4 or 3"1/2 is possible, but for a given type, size can not be known). So program searches the last sector of the disk to get its size. In case this last sector is damaged, program will be wrong and whole floppy disk will not be saved/ restored. In this case it is better that you use saving using DOS devices. To know which size program has found, you can use window asking you if you want to save all sectors or occupied ones only (if it is displayed) or remaining size when window asking you backup filename is displayed. In case you save all sectors, same remarks than for saving a whole partition can be applied, in case you save only occupied sectors, you have to read previous chapters following the filesystem. If you restore a floppy disk for which you have saved only occupied sectors, on a floppy disk with a different size, it will work. But this floppy disk will no more have a standard format so it can mistake some programs. After you have restored a floppy disk, you have to eject it then enter it back into drive such as DOS can take changes into account. Without doing this, you can get incoherence on disk. k) DOS devices: This method allows you to save all devices that DOS accesses using sector notion and that have a FAT filesystem. By example, it is not the case for CD or network mapped drive, but it is the case for big floppy disk as the Zip one. This obviously allows accessing to FAT partitions of hard disk or disk floppy, but for both cases it is better to use direct access as described into above chapters. The only case where this is wrong is in case the floppy disk size is badly recognized. Device to save/restore must be correctly formatted for it to be correctly recognized. Same remarks as for saving floppy disk can be applied in this case. 16- What is not supported ------------------------- Following elements are not supported: - partitions for OSes that does no follow partition format as it is described (notably Solaris x86). - disk manager programs (do not confuse with boot manager programs that are supported). These programs allow to access to more than 8 Gb disks with standard mode (if you use one, there are some probability that you know it). If you see only one partition when you know that there were several, such a program could be installed. Francisco Miranda has reported to me that he has successfully runned Partition Saving with Samsung disk manager. Thanks to him to have made the try and to have returned this information to me back. Nevertheless this is only valid for this disk manager, so I let this warning for others disk manager. - extended partition with OS2 can not be all detected: into extended partition chain, the most common is to use only two partitions by node (the two others having wrong information), but OS2 seems to use the four partitions. 17- What can not be tested -------------------------- Following elements can not be tested: - use of disk with a sector size not equal to 512 bytes. - partitions for others OSes than DOS, Windows (9x, XP) and Linux. - creating saving file on partition which is saved, unless using dedicated option. - updating of registry in case of Windows 200 registry. If somebody use this program with one of above element, I will be pleased to know how it works (and trouble encountered if there were). For these persons, I want to indicate that: - savepart.exe -s only read the disk physically (writing is done into file with standard DOS functions). - savepart.exe when used with "-t" option does not write anything on disk. 18- Acknowledgements -------------------- - my father for asking me such a program (without what it would be never written), to have read this document (the French version, all mistakes into English one is due to my poor English) and to have tested this program. - DJ Delorie for DJGPP environment (http://www.delorie.com/djgpp). This includes also everybody who has helped him. - Jean-Loup Gailly and Mark Adler for zlib compression library ( http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/zlib/). - Ralf Brown all the documentation that he has gathered on interruptions ( http://www.pobox.com/~ralf). - Simon P. Bullen for fortify (a library to check memory use). - Chris Lattner for its Website "The Operating System Resource Center" where you can find a lot of information on hardware and software ( http://www.nondot.org/sabre/os/articles). - Régis Duchesne and Richard Russon (and all persons that help them) for all documents on NTFS (http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/ntfs/index.html). - Markus Oberhumer and Laszlo Molnar for the executable packer UPX ( http://upx.sourceforge.net), and Serge Delbono for having point out it to me. - Brett Stevenson and Richard Ross-Langley for correction of English version of FAQ and web site homepage. - B.D. to have searched and given registry file format (I can not find the whole name of author). - bug finders for reporting them and giving help to resolve them: * Charles M. Tilden (problem on bad detection of hard drive). * Daniel Lagunes (bug on reading partitions table for standard access disk with at least two logical partitions). * Thibaud Fontanet (failure of detection for some hard disks into V2.21 and hang up of computer when rebooting, the first problem was then reported by Juergen and Ray Schmitz)(for V2.22 bad attribution of DOS drive letter in the case there was several main DOS partition on the same disk). * Ray Schmitz (problem about accessing the wrong disk in the case of a drive before it is not detected as a hard disk). * Volker Beck (the forgetting of code to allows saving NTFS partition with batch mode). * Frode Ingebretsen (screen problems with some computers (not compatible BIOS ?)). * Brian Bell (the unavaibility to restore FAT partitions that have bad sectors when saving). * Menno Schoone (the not needed ask for option file creation when saving with an option file using the automatic_naming option). * Patrick Barny (the first who has helped me on very fragmented NTFS partition, followed by Peter Newman and Kamil Wicher). - people that send me mails for encouraging, doing remarks, giving advice and giving improvement way. Hope this program will be useful, D. Guibouret <damien.guibouret@partition-saving.com> ------ All trademarks and registered trademarks are ownership of their respective holders.