A tool for creating and restoring disk images, cloning entire disks, making dumps.
When you select a file as a destination an image file will be created.
When you instead select a disk/partition as a destination, the write is performed directly to a disk, all data on the destination disk will be overwritten, the destination file system will be erased.
If you write something to a disk containing lost data (e.g. applying a patch) this may cause further data loss.
| Device | Select Device, Logical disk (volume), Image, virtual RAID as a source/destination |
|---|---|
| Partition | Select Partition as a source/destination (use Device button to change the device), |
| to select the entire disk double click the topmost item in the partitions list | |
| File | Use file as a source/destination (Device · Disk Images can also be used) |
| Editor | Use the object opened in the Disk Editor window as a source |
| Selected | Use the selected block in the Disk Editor as a source |
Fields Start Sector/Byte, End Sector/Byte, Number of Sectors/Size in Bytes are filled in automatically when the source/destination is set by a button. If a File or Editor is used as a source then fields are specified in bytes (otherwise they are in sectors).
You can manually specify a range within the source object for copying and the starting offset for the destination. Start Sector/Byte of the source will be copied to the Start Sector/Byte of the destination regardless the direction of copying. For a partition, Start Sector is relative to the partition beginning (not to the device beginning).
The button Split allows splitting the destination file into parts. A RAID configuration raidinfo.ini is also created to open later the splitted image or to continue writing the splitted image (to specify/open using Device - Disk Images / Logs).
Using the Device button you may select a file (disk image) as a source or a destination. Then you may specify parameters available for a disk only.
If Editor or Selected is used as a source then some logical errors (such as invalid cluster or sector numbers) are silently ignored.
Log file contains a report on the copied sectors and errors. If a partition is selected as a source then sector numbers in the log are relative to the beginning of the disk (not the partition).
The option "use log to continue copying" allows skipping already copied sectors (the option is available in Professional Edition only). In particular if copy settings and parameters are not changed then copying will continue from the last position when started. The option may also be used for multi-pass copying with decreasing jumps on bad sectors, preliminary copying of important areas, copying in different directions.
Changing some device I/O parameters (decreasing jump over sectors, increasing auto retries number from 0, decreasing I/O buffer size if there are 0 retries) on a new pass will cause copying sectors previously skipped due to jumps after bad sectors.
The option "Retry copying bad sectors from log" is to copy bad sectors again when all skipped sectors are already copied (Professional Edition only). On each pass bad sectors are being copied from the beginning, continuation is not possible.
Flush log when number of sectors copied: flush buffer log to disk (update log-file) regularly when number of sectors is copied.
The button "Parameters" allows setting device I/O parameters to handle errors (such as retries, jumps through bads, etc.)
Reverse copy: copy backward (from the end to the beginning) to create an image of a disk with problems.
Double thread: perform read and write operations in parallel threads to increase the speed. Do not use the option for copying disks with errors.
The field Continue from sector/byte specifies the position to continue copying. The position is relative to the source beginning. Copying in reverse direction starts previos to the specified position and goes backward (e.g., if set to 10 then sector 9 is copied first and copying goes to the beginning).
The option Lock the source for copy is for locking the volumes located over the source area to prevent modification of the source during copying (Windows only).
Save/Load: save/load settings to a file/from a file.
Export log to ddrescue mapfile: convert log-file to a ddrescue mapfile format.
Export bad and skipped ranges from log: get a list of bad and skipped sectors. The list can be then used to get information about damaged files located in bad sectors (see Data Recovery).