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Partition Management

A tool to view, quick search, and open volumes, as well as to perform basic operations on partitions on MBR- and GPT-style disks. Other styles (e.g., hybrid, dynamic) are unsupported whilst partitions may be shown as found.

Warning! Any disk modifications may cause further data loss (read more)

To enable modifications the option Advanced must be turned on. All changes remain virtual until you apply them using the button Apply or the context menu command Apply Partitioning. Write operations must be confirmed or enabled through the option Allow Write in the device parameters. See also the section Manage Changes.

Partition management supports modifications that change only partition tables and boot sectors without touching partitions contents. These include partition removal and undeleting, restoration of a boot sector from its copy, and other basic operations.

Dialog Box "Partitions"

The checkbox "found" is to display lost and removed partitions (an express search is performed). For a complex and deeper search there is Full Scan option.

To prevent the default express search uncheck the box Show partitions when open a device or construct a RAID.

When volume is opened from the Full Scan results it is also added to the list of found partitions and can be restored (inserted) if not corrupted.

Other info mode checkboxes:

  • tables: display AMBR and GPT partition tables
  • GiB: display sizes in binary units
  • detailed: display multiple lines per partition in accordance with the source of information

(A) - bootable (active) partition status (Partition column).

Indicators indicate the presence of structures:

  • T – partition table
  • E – table entry
  • B – volume boot sector
  • C – boot sector/GPT copy
  • F – basic FS structures (e.g., first MFT file record for NTFS)
  • f – MFTMirr for NTFS
  • x – structure is absent or damaged

Found errors are colored in red. For incorrect/non-standard partitioning correct displaying is not guaranteed. Some partitioning errors can be fixed by removing and inserting back the partitions. Prior to DMDE 3.8 FAT basic FS structures (F indicator) were being tested only on opening a volume.

The Menu button displays the operations available on the selected partition or the entire disk.

Open Volume

Open the selected volume to view and recover files.

Open Volume Parameters

View and manually edit volume parameters before opening the volume.

Show Volume Letters

Display volume letters currently assigned to partitions by OS.

Full Scan within the Partition

Run Full Scan or load full scan results from a file.

Create Image/Clone

Call the dialog box Copy Sectors to create partition image or clone the partition.

Insert the Partition (Undelete)

Insert lost or removed volume into the partition table. Invalid partitions may prevent insertion so they must be removed before insertion. Completely damaged partitioning can be resetted using the command Toggle MBR Signature On/Off applied to the topmost item. You should add partitions from the beginning to the end of the disk.

Remove the Partition

Remove the existing partition or a partition table.

Create RAW Partition

Create unformatted (RAW) partition within the unallocated space. If there are no partitioning errors it is highly recommended to use only standard system tools for creating and removing partitions.

Restore Boot Sector from the Copy

Replace damaged boot sector with a backup copy.

Toggle Bootable (Active) Partition Status

Set or reset active (A) status of a bootable partition.

Toggle MBR/Boot Signature On/Off (MBR On/Off)

Set or reset boot sector signature (0xAA55).

Reset GPT+MBR Signatures (GPT Off)

Reset boot sector signature (0xAA55) and signatures of GPT tables (EFI PART).

Set GPT+MBR Signatures (GPT On)

Set GPT and boot signatures. Available only on GPT disks after resetting.

Write Boot Sectors

Make DOS bootable disk.

Undo Action

Undo the last action.

Redo Action

Redo the last undone action.

Undo Partitioning Changes

Undo all partitioing changes.

Reset All Changes

Reset all unapplied changes.

Load from File

Load disk partitioning or rollback data from a file. See Changes for details.

Save Current Partitioning to File

Save current partitioning to a file for a backup purposes. Available only if the device is partitioned and there are no unapplied changes.

Apply Partitioning

Write changes to the disk. See Applying Changes for details.