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(Documentation for the Mode=FAT menu)
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(Mode=FAT)


Mode=FAT Menu: [Generic FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 File System]

Allocation map display F9

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Allocation map display F9

Display a pseudo-graphical map of used versus free sectors in the filesystem

Menu item screenshot(s)


    Display a usage map for the currently selected disk or filesystem

    A pseudo-graphical map of the disk or partition allocation is
    displayed, showing the distribution of data over the object

    This is also an indication for the amount of unused sectors in
    the object, that are beneficial to 'SMART-SECTOR' optimizations
    in imaging and cloning operations.

    The percentage of used sectors are displayed as a percentage at
    the end of the line, and a total usage percentage and size is
    shown just after the map itself.

    For filesystems that support resizing, the limits for resizing
    are shown after the map itself.

   


File Recovery/Undelete

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> File Recovery/Undelete

Submenu to search for deleted/normal files, list and possibly recover them


    This submenu offers selections to search for normal or deleted
    files, display the resulting lists and possibly recover files.

   


Find sub-directories => list

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> File Recovery/Undelete -> Find sub-directories => list

Search data area for any sub-directory sectors with the '..' entry

Menu item screenshot(s)


    This will find all sectors in the partition that appear to be
    the first sector of a subdirectory (containing the '..' name).

    This can be useful if the root-directory is damaged, and data
    needs to be recovered anyway.

    


Find subdirs in ROOT => list

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> File Recovery/Undelete -> Find subdirs in ROOT => list

Search data area for subdirs with '..' entry cluster 0 => subdir from ROOT


    This will find all sectors in the partition that appear to be
    the first sector of a subdirectory (containing the '..' name)
    and that have a cluster-value of 0.

    This should be subdirectories of the ROOT directory.

    This can be useful if the root-directory is damaged, and data
    needs to be recovered anyway.

    


Find subdirs non ROOT => list

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> File Recovery/Undelete -> Find subdirs non ROOT => list

Search data area for subdirs with '..' entry non-zero, => subdir, non ROOT


    This will find all sectors in the partition that appear to be
    the first sector of a subdirectory (containing the '..' name)
    and that have a cluster-value that is non-ZERO.

    This should be subdirectories that are NOT a ROOT subdirectory.

    



Search Deleted files => list

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> File Recovery/Undelete -> Search Deleted files => list

Search data area for deleted files ('Recover from list' NOT POSSIBLE YET)

Menu item screenshot(s)


    This will search the whole partition for DIR-entries of DELETED
    files that match the partial filename (wildcard) specified.

    The sectornumbers of the found DIR-entries will be added to the DFSee
    sectorlist so can be used in later actions, or be exported to a file.

    The files contained in that list can NOT be RECOVERED yet, due to the
    missing or incomplete allocation information for deleted files on FAT.
    RECOVER will be unreliable by definition, but there might be some
    'best-we-can-do' type of recovery offered in future versions ...

    


Search Normal files => list

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> File Recovery/Undelete -> Search Normal files => list

Search data area for non-deleted files, for 'Recover from list'

Menu item screenshot(s)


    This will search the whole partition for DIR-entries of non-deleted
    regular files that match the partial filename (wildcard) specified.

    You can also search for specific file-extensions by using a syntax
    like '*.ext' or '*.c*' for the partial filename

    The sectornumbers of the found Dir-entries will be added to the DFSee
    sectorlist so can be used in later actions, or be exported to a file.

    The files contained in that list can be RECOVERED to any directory
    on the system, including a network, by using the 'RECOVER' command.

    



Display files from List ...

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> File Recovery/Undelete -> Display files from List ...

Display (selected) files from the list, using a PATH+FILENAME wildcard

Menu item screenshot(s)


    This will display the DFSee sector-list in a compact format, suited
    to the data contained in the list

    This usually is a 'list -f' or a 'list -s' variant.

    


Recover files from list ...

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> File Recovery/Undelete -> Recover files from list ...

Recover (selected) files from the list to a supplied recovery directory


    This will allow you to recover (copy) one or more of the files in the
    list to any local or network directory on your system.

    It will prompt for a destination directory first, using the last used
    one as a default. All files recovered in one go, will be recovered to
    this same directory, with their original path appended to retain the
    directory structure whenever possible.

    It will also prompt for a selection specification in the form of a
    full PATH+FILENAME wildcard and an optional allocation-percentage.

    As an example, the specification:

       '*mydoc*\*project_x*.doc%100'

       will recover all files that have 'mydoc' somewhere in the PATH,
       'project_x' in the filename and have an extension of '.doc' that
       seem to be 100% recoverable. (100% allocation-OK ranking).

    



Boot area fixes/updates

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Boot area fixes/updates

Fix bootsector, HiddenSectors/GEO, BOOT.INI and NTLDR imaging and fixing


    This submenu offers selections for fixes related to booting like
    fix the bootsector itself, fixing the HiddenSectors and geometry
    fields in the bootsector plus BOOT.INI display and FIX of an
    incorrect BOOT.INI entry

   


Fix the Bootsector

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Boot area fixes/updates -> Fix the Bootsector

Fix bootsector by replacing from spare (FAT32) or create new


    This will create a new FAT/FAT32 bootsector for the partition, using
    information from the partition-tables, or for FAT32 by replacing it
    with the spare-copy found at LSN 7

    This can be very useful when the bootsector got damaged by a virus
    or a crashing program (writing to sector 0) or if the partition was
    deleted by accident using FDISK or LVM and recreated again.

    You can specify the desired type for the bootsector in the
    prompt dialog, with a default of M = MS-DOS, select from:

           I or P  IBM/PC-DOS with IBMBIO/IBMDOS.COM
           M       MSDOS      with IO/MSDOS.SYS
           O       OS/2       with OS2BOOT
           N       Win-NT     with NTLDR       (FAT16)
           9       Win-9x     with WINBOOT.SYS (FAT32)

    



Display Windows BOOT.INI

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Boot area fixes/updates -> Display Windows BOOT.INI

Find (first) BOOT.INI, display the default line and partition-index to boot


    This will search for the first occurence of a 'BOOT.INI' file in
    the currently opened filesystem (FAT, FAT32 or NTFS).

    When found, some info of the file will be displayed, and the line
    containing the DEFAULT partition to be booted will be displayed
    including the 'partition(W)' partition index. It should look like:

        default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS

    Below that line, the partition-index for the CURRENT partition
    as calculated by DFSee will be shown. From these two values you
    can see if the BOOT.INI default entry is correct for booting the
    Windows contained in the current selected partition (if any).

    Note that DFSee can only calculate the correct value when the
    filesystem was opened as a PARTITION, not as a volume ...

    


Fix BOOT.INI partition index

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Boot area fixes/updates -> Fix BOOT.INI partition index

Find (first) BOOT.INI, update default partition-index to fix a boot failure


    This will prompt for a replacement value for the partition-index
    to be used in the 'default' boot line in the BOOT.INI file.

    Specify '*' or 'fix' to use the value calculated by DFSee,
    or fill in a numeric value if you want to try another one.

    Add a ' -2' after this value to force BOTH occurences in the
    BOOT.INI file to be updated at the same time. Updating just one
    might be safer, since the old value is still there too, but it
    will result in a the Windows BOOTMANAGER menu toi be displayed
    with these two (now different) partitions selected.
    The corrected one will be the 'default' line ...

    In some situations, it might be needed to try out a few values
    to find the one that will allow Windows to boot again ...

    It will then search for the first occurence of a 'BOOT.INI' file
    in the currently opened filesystem (FAT, FAT32 or NTFS).

    When found, some info of the file will be displayed, and the line
    containing the DEFAULT partition to be booted will be displayed
    including the 'partition(W)' partition index. It should look like:

        default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS

    Below that line, the partition-index calculated by DFSee is shown.

    Incorrect values for the default partition-index will lead to
    boot failures with messages like:

        Invalid Boot.ini

    or

        Windows could not start because the following file
        is missing or corrupt: Windows\system32\Hal.dll

    The specified or calculated value will be substituted for the
    partition-index in the default line.

    Of course you need to reboot to test if this fix worked ...

    Note:
    Unless you specify the ' -2' option with the value,
    this is NOT a full 'REPAIR' of your BOOT.INI file!
    It is just the minimum update to allow booting Windows again!
    You must properly edit boot.ini once Windows is running again,
    or use 'bootcfg /rebuild' from the recovery-console that can
    be started from regular Windows installation CDs.

    When there is damage to the BOOT.INI file beyond an incorrect
    partition-index, fixing it this way might not be possible.

    



Fix HiddenSectors/Geo value

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Boot area fixes/updates -> Fix HiddenSectors/Geo value

Fix bootsector HiddenSectors and geometry fields to match partition tables


    This will update the 'hidden sectors' field in the bootsector
    to match the offset to the partition-table the partition is
    defined in and update the geometry Heads and Sectors field to
    match the current disk geometry.

    This could be REQUIRED for some operating systems like OS/2
    to accept and mount the partition as a driveletter!

    


Set Volume Serial Number

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Boot area fixes/updates -> Set Volume Serial Number

Change the volume serial number, making this volume unique (after clone :-)


    This will update the 'volume serial number' in the bootsector

    This could be REQUIRED for some operating systems after cloning
    a filesystem, to make sure the volume serial numbers are unique.

    


Reset bad sectors

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Reset bad sectors

Reset the bad-sector administration to show ZERO bad-sectors or clusters


    This will check for bad-sectors being present in the
    filesystem and when present, reset to NO bad sectors.

     FAT:  Reset all 'BAD' values in the FAT to FREE
     NTFS: Update $BadClus and $BitMap to reset bad-clusters
     HPFS: Make the bad-sector-list in the spare-block empty

    This can be very useful after cloning or imaging a partition
    or disk that includes bad-sectors to a new replacement one.

   



Find FAT32 Root directory

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Find FAT32 Root directory

Find and list possible FAT32 Rootdirectory clusters/sectors


    This will try to find directory-sectors that would qualify as a
    valid root-directory (first dir-sector but no '..' entry).

    This can be useful if the root-directory reference in the FAT32
    was damaged and is not recoverable in another way (fixboot).

   



Make THIS partition Active

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Make THIS partition Active

Make the currently selected PRIMARY the 'active' partition for MBR/BIOS boot


    This will make the currently selected PRIMARY partition the
    ACTIVE one for the disk.

    There should only be a single active partition on every disk.
    When the system starts, the BIOS will usually boot from
    the ACTIVE partition on the first disk.

    In IBM BMGR/LVM terms the active partition is called STARTABLE.

   


Delete THIS partition

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Delete THIS partition

Delete the currently selected partition from the partition tables


    This will delete the partition that is currently selected to be
    deleted from the partition-tables. This will result in the space
    occupied by the partition becoming FREESPACE that can be used
    again to create new partitions.

    For primary partitions on LVM-systems, the related LVM-information
    is cleared as well, to avoid consistency problems later when a new
    partition is created at the same position.

   


Set FAT status Clean

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Set FAT status Clean

Update FAT status field in the bootsector to indicate filesystem is CLEAN


    This will update the fileystem-status field in the FAT bootsector
    to indicate that filesystem is CLEAN.

    This can be useful to avoid an automatic CHKDSK after a system-crash

    Note: The filesystem itself is NOT cleaned in any way, it is just the
          statusflag that is modified.

   


Set FAT status Dirty

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Set FAT status Dirty

Update FAT status field in the bootsector to indicate filesystem is DIRTY


    This will update the fileystem-status field in the FAT bootsector
    to indicate that filesystem is DIRTY.

   



Check FAT filesystem

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Check FAT filesystem

Check filesystem for inconsistencies and errors (Readonly, no fixing!)


    This will perform a CHECK of the filesystem, somewhat like the
    well-known CHKDSK but without automatically fixing anything.

    The result of the check is a sector-lookup-table (SLT) that contains
    information about all recognized filesystem areas that are in use.

    Any error recognized will be flagged in the default display of
    this SLT that is performed automatically by the CHECK command.

   


Identify sectors (SLT)

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Identify sectors (SLT)

Create Sector Lookup Table (SLT) if needed, display as table or sector info


    This submenu contains all menu-items related to OPENING an object
    to analyse, fix or otherwise work with using other DFSee commands
    and menu selections. The opened object will be the CURRENT one.

   


Show object layout (SLT)

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Identify sectors (SLT) -> Show object layout (SLT)

Show layout of current object by displaying parts of the Sector Lookup Table


    This will display part of the sector-lookup-table (SLT)

    You wil be presented with an option dialog first, where you
    specify the desired format and part of the SLT to be displayed.

    The SLT will be built automatically if not done yet, and it will
    have been built by any previous CHECK command too.

    Building the SLT will take place in the background while the
    dialog can be used freely to specify any options for displaying.
    After the dialog has been ended, and the SLT is ready, it will
    be displayed as requested.

    Typically the SLT will contain at least one entry for every file
    on the filesystem, so there could be hundreds of thousands lines!

    


Identify specific sector

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Identify sectors (SLT) -> Identify specific sector

Show identification for specified (or current) sector, using the SLT


    This will display information about the specified sector that is
    available in the sector lookup table (SLT)

    The most useful info is the sector referencing this sector, this
    often leads to showing to which file/directory the sector belongs.

    The SLT will be generated automatically if not yet available

    


Identify Last used sector

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Identify sectors (SLT) -> Identify Last used sector

Show identification for the last sector used, dictating the minimum FS size


    This will display information about the sector that is the last
    one being used (allocated) in the filesystem, and because of that
    dictates the MINIMUM size for the filesystem for a RESIZE.

    The most useful info is the sector referencing this sector, this
    often leads to showing to which file/directory the sector belongs.

    The SLT will be generated automatically if not yet available,
    just as the required allocation information (alloc).

    



Reselect whole disk, FDISK

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Reselect whole disk, FDISK

Unselect filesystem, reselect the same/first disk; enables Mode=FDISK menu

Menu item screenshot(s)


    This will UNSELECT the current object/filesystem, and reselect a
    whole physical disk, either the same disk as the partition was on,
    or the first disk present in other cases.

    This is a quick way to change to 'Mode=FDISK' and work on
    disk-level issues

   



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DFSee main page  |  File  |  Edit  |  Actions  |  Display  |  Help
Mode=FDISK  |  AUX  |  EXT2+3  |  FAT  |  HFS+  |  HPFS  |  JFS  |  NTFS  |  REISER  |  XFS  |  SWAP
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