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A list of terms used in this page and
their explanation can be found here.
The first thing you'll need to do after having started DiskPatch is select a
disk to work with. Select the [Select disk] option from the main menu to choose
a disk. A window will pop up that lists all the available disks and, if they
exist, the state files for those disks. DiskPatch lists disks in
the order they are reported by the system and uses the system assigned (decimal)
values to address them (the first physical hard disk is normally assigned
the value 128, the second 129 and so on). Selecting a state file will load the
analysis data from a previously executed scan, and select the connected disk as
the disk to work with. Pressing <escape> at this point will close the disk
selection window and unselect any disk that may have been selected previously.
State files.
When a disk has been analyzed (either when using the trial version or a
full version of DiskPatch) the gathered data is saved in a file. In a
following DiskPatch session you can then load this data instead of
having to re-scan the entire disk. This saves time when the disk has
been analyzed with the trial version and needs to be repaired with the
full version; the disk does not need to be scanned again.
A state file is invalidated (and can not be loaded anymore) when a repair has been
executed; the state of the disk has changed so a new analysis
is necessary. DiskPatch will notify you of this after a repair or other
activity that might invalidate a state file.
Selecting an invalidated state file will lead to an error notification,
after which no disk is selected; you'll have to open the select disk screen
again.
State files can only be saved and used if DiskPatch has full access to
the disk, and if file writing is enabled. Read the configuration
page for more details on this. |
The disk selection screen:
(This particular PC has 2 disks, of which disk
1 (129) has a state file from a
previous scan)
Select a disk and press <enter>. You will now see the following sub-menu:
This menu helps you to identify the disk,
if needed. Select [List partitions] to display the partitions on the
disk, so you can check to see if you are selecting the correct disk. The option [Show partition tables] starts the partition table viewer and shows
the partition table in the MBR.
Choose [Select disk] to close this menu and select the disk.
| If you have created a bootable USB
key and are using it to start the PC and run DiskPatch, the USB key is
usually the first disk listed in the "Select disk" window.
Obviously that would not be the disk you want to perform recovery on, so
be sure to select the correct disk. |
Note: the disk that is selected in this screen is also considered the source disk
for the clone process.
If the selected disk has an invalid MBR (damaged or otherwise invalid) a
notification will be shown:
This notification may also show up on
other occasions, when DiskPatch accesses disks and performs its checks. This
notification is purely for your information and does not have to signify big
trouble. For instance, if you select an empty disk this warning will show up
because there are no partitions and the MBR will be empty.
Considerations when selecting a hard
disk:
- If the hard disk contents have changed since the last scan
(after a repair for example) you should re-scan the disk
rather than load a state file. Specific conditions and events (such as
repairs) will
cause DiskPatch to declare a state file invalid; when you try to load an
invalid state file DiskPatch will display an error message.
- If the problem disk was originally partitioned in another system, geometry
'conflicts' may occur, in which case you may need to make DiskPatch aware of
the disk geometry as it was in the original system. Use [Options], [Set Custom
Geometry] to do so.
Important! If repairs were made in a
system using a different disk geometry and you've used 'custom geometry settings', it
is assumed that after you have completed the repairs, the hard disk is moved back
to the original system. In other words, DiskPatch can NOT be used to
'convert' a disk to a geometry that is different from the geometry that
was used at the time the disk was originally partitioned.
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