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Partition Table

This section of Drive Master 2000 gives you complete control over the current logical drives partition table. Although this is one of the most powerful tools used for the partition table, it is also one of the most dangerous! Please exercise caution when executing any function that will write to the hard drive.

There are four menu choices associated with the partition record:

Repair: This function actually writes the repaired partition table for the current logical drive to the physical drive. The repaired partition table resides in memory until written to the physical drive by you. This allows you to view the reconstructed partition table and any other related data such as the boot record and FAT before deciding to write it to the disk.

Take caution with this function and make absolutely sure that the partition table you are about to write to your drive is the one you want. Make doubly sure that you have created a set of rescue disks before writing to the drive.

Clean This function is much like repair except for one major difference. Repair writes the reconstructed partition table, clean writes zeroes. In other words, this function cleans the partition table sector from any data whatsoever by overwriting it with zeroes.

Why would someone want to write zeroes to their partition table, you may ask? That is a good question. The answer is that sometimes garbage is written to the partition table sector (often from a virus), and this garbage may actually confuse the repair process. The garbage may mask the real problem. If Drive Master 2000 seems to be having a difficult time deciphering the current file system try cleaning the partition table. Take caution with thisfunction and make absolutely sure that you want to clean the partition table. Make doubly sure that you have created a set of rescue disks before writing to the drive!

 

 

File System Component Recovery

General Overview

In the Diagnostics portion of Drive Master 2000 we discovered how the system is thoroughly scanned and tested to determine, if any, the extent of file system corruption. In Phase I and Phase II we also learned that these components are repaired in memory through a series of steps and questions.

However, it is important to note that Drive Master 2000 does all repairs in memory and does not write any data to the current physical or logical drives. This portion of component recovery is used to write data to the drive and consequently repair the corrupt file system.The demo will not write.

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Data View (Drive & Memory)

In order to help make an intelligent decision about whether or not to repair the current partition table it is helpful to be able to view the data that was originally on the drive in contrast to what is currently residing in memory as a reconstructed partition table.

 

Drive' and 'Memory' buttons:

Using the 'Drive' button will read the partition table for the current logical drive into memory and display it in the form you see depicted in this screen. Using the 'Memory' button will display the reconstructed partition table in the same form. It easy to ascertain which view Drive Master 2000 is currently using by looking in the lower right hand corner of the window. The mnemonic DRV means the partition table data currently being viewed is directly from the drive. Conversely, MEM is the partition table data residing in memory.

Using this as a guide you can make a step forward in determining if you need to indeed, repair, or clean the current partition table sector. One final note, it is very easy to determine if you are viewing a good partition table by simply looking at the data and checking for any negative numbers, overrun fields, invalid file system types, etc.

br.gif (6614 bytes)DOS Boot Record

This section of Drive Master 2000 gives you complete control over the current logical drives boot record. Although this is one of the most powerful tools used for the boot record, it is also one of the most dangerous! Please exercise caution when executing any function that will write to the hard drive.

There are four functions that may be applied to the boot record:

Repair

This function actually writes the repaired boot record for the current logical drive to the physical drive. The repaired boot record resides in memory until written to the physical drive by you. This allows you to view the reconstructed boot record and any other related data such as the partition table and FAT before deciding to write it to the disk.

Take caution with this function and make absolutely sure that the boot record you are about to write to your drive is the one you want. Make doubly sure that you have created a set of rescue disks before writing to the drive!

Clean

This function is much like repair except for one major difference. Repair writes the reconstructed boot record, clean, writes zeroes. In other words, this function cleans the boot record sector from any data whatsoever by overwriting it with zeroes.

Why write zeroes to the boot sector? The answer is that sometimes garbage is written to the boot record sector(most often by a virus), and this garbage may actually confuse the repair process.

If Drive Master 2000 seems to be having a difficult time deciphering the current file system try cleaning the boot record. (always make a rescue disk first!)

Data View - Drive & Memory

In order to help make an intelligent decision about whether or not to repair the current boot record it is helpful to be able to view the data that was originally on the drive in contrast to what is currently residing in memory as a reconstructed boot record.

'Drive' and 'Memory' buttons: Using the 'Drive' button will read the boot record for the current logical drive into memory and display it in the form you see on the previous page. Using the 'Memory' button will display the reconstructed boot record in the same form. It easy to ascertain which view Drive Master 2000 is currently using by looking in the lower right hand corner of the window. The mnemonic DRV means the boot record data currently being viewed is directly from the drive. Conversely, MEM is the boot record data residing in memory.

Using this as a guide you can make a step forward in determining if you need to indeed, repair, or clean the current boot record sector.

One final note, it is very easy to determine if you are viewing a good boot record by simply looking at the data and checking for any negative numbers, overrun fields, invalid file system types, garbage in the volume label field etc.

File Allocation Table (FAT)

These set of functions differ from the partition table and boot record repair in as much as the actual repair is calculated now, not during the previous diagnostic testing. The repair is done in this manner to ensure proper data integrity during a viewing phase.

There are several types of FAT recoveries as well as FAT manipulation functions.

Please read and understand all of them thoroughly in order to obtain optimum results.

As with the partition table and boot record repairs, exercise extreme caution when writing data to the drive.

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File Window

This is a sampling of a total of ten files from your root directory.
This window is the single most important part of a FAT repair.

If garbage is in this Window there is a real possibility that the drive geometry has been compromised. If there is not any data displayed in the window then the drive has either been formatted or once again the geometry of the drive has been compromised.

In order to ensure a good FAT rebuild make sure thar what is displayed in the windows matches what was in your root directory at the time of the file system damage. In this example it is plain to see that the logical drive is 'C'  There are several files displayed that are inherent to a windows 'C' drive. IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, COMMAND.COM and others. Therefore it is safe to assume the a FAT rebuild would generate a good recovery.

Build FAT Only (in memory)

This function is to be used just to rebuild the FAT. Drive Master 2000 assumes that the root directory is intact and can be used in rebuilding the FAT.

Build FAT/Root (FAT in memory Root entries written to disk)

This function is to be used if the drive has been formatted, or the root directory has a possibility of being corrupted. Drive Master 2000 makes no assumptions as to the integrity of the data area, or the root directory.

Repair

As in the partition table and boot record repair this is the function that actually writes the data to the current logical drive. Once again, exercise extreme caution when using this functions both FATs will be overwritten.

Make sure that you have made rescue disks!

Clean

On the occasion that the FAT is so corrupt that it causes problems with the recovery of the file system it may be advisable to clean the FAT area. As with the partition table and boot record clean, this function also writes zeroes to the FAT area of the drive.

Make sure that the rescue disks have been generated in case they are needed at a later date to restore the file system to its original condition.

Copy FAT1 > FAT2 or Copy FAT2 > FAT1

In some cases it is necessary to update a FAT by using its copy. In the event of a virus only corrupting the first FAT, or random data only being written to the second FAT. In any event these two functions allow the flexibility to update the FATS in either direction

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