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Disk Guru
DISKGURU 2.1 · 2006-04-18 · Shareware Program |
Testing a hard disk for errors
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Disk Guru
DISKGURU 2.1 · 2006-04-18 · Shareware Program |
Disk Guru is an advanced disk utility program for hard disks and diskettes. It operates on the entire physical disk, ignoring disk partitions and file system.
The program can
• Test a disk for errors
• Search it for a byte string
• Display data in sectors
• Edit sector data in character and hexadecimal format
(Registered version only)
• Copy sectors from a hard disk to a file on a diskette
(Registered version only)
• Erase (i.e. destroy) the contents
of an entire disk!
Disk tests may be performed in either "Read only" or "Read and write" mode and every sector on the disk is tested. If an error is found, the BIOS error code is reported. The error codes may also be logged on a printer.
During a read only test or a string search it is possible to display the data in the sectors being read. The display can be paused to allow reading of the data. While the data display is paused, it is possible to activate a sector editor which makes it very simple to edit sector data in both character and hexadecimal format.
The values shown under Disk characteristics do not always represent the true, physical characteristics of a hard disk. In some cases it is just a logical mapping of the real (but unknown) disk geometry, used by the BIOS. Irrespective of that, Disk Guru will always process the total number of sectors on the disk correctly.
Disk Guru Version 2 can handle large hard disks if they support the INT 13H Extensions, which most modern hard disks do. This means that the previous maximum disk size of 1024*256*63 = 16,515,072 sectors (about 8.4 GB) imposed by the original C-H-S architecture is no longer a limiting factor. Using the INT 13H Extensions, Disk Guru can now handle hard disks with up to 4,294,967,295 sectors or approximately 2,199 GB!
This version of Disk Guru requires at least an Intel 80386 compatible processor. If you need to run Disk Guru on an old PC, which does not have that, you can still download Disk Guru Version 1.1 (without support for INT 13H Extensions) as DISKGU11.COM.
Help is available in the program. No printed documentation.
The registration fee for Disk Guru is US$ 15 (or DKK 90 or equivalent in a convertible currency). In return, you will get the registered version of Disk Guru which includes the sector editor and the sector copy function.
Note: Most versions of Windows and OS/2 will not allow DISKGURU to work properly on a hard disk as it uses BIOS interrupt 13H that directly accesses the disk. If you encounter this problem, you should prepare a DOS startup diskette or CD-ROM including DISKGURU.COM. Then boot the PC from the diskette/CD-ROM and run DISKGURU from that. In this way you can always get full access to the hard disk(s), regardless of the PC's operating system. Under Windows and OS/2, DISKGURU must run in DOS full screen mode.
This page was last updated 2006-12-12 16:37 CET