After my system crashed and wrote bad sectors at various places on my system partition (a 120gb NTFS partition on s 233gb SATA disk). I tried cloning the disk but after reading the first bad sector, DiskPatch showed an error for all following sectors. The error was "Uncorrectable CRC or ECC"; the program took a long time for each sector even tho the error retry count was 0. I tried a RO surface scan and got the same results. Now the interesting part is that I did a surface scan using the Partition Table Doctor, also running under FREEDOS, and the scan only showed a few sectors in error. Suggestions?

Product you are using: DiskPatch 2

Operating system / Service Pack: Windows XP

Size of subject harddisk: 233gb

Hello,

And you have the logfile, where?

--
Joep

Hello,

Can you please post the contents of the logfile so we can try working out what is happening here?

--
Kind regards,
Joep

Here is a log file showing two clone operations. The first is from 196663 to 196667 and is sucessful. The second starts one sector earlier, at 196662, a sector which has an error. Notice that each of the following sector reads also show an error even tho they read ok in the first clone.

.../000:07/LOG> ### LOG START ###
.../000:07/LOG> DISKPATCH 2.0.100
.../000:07/LOG> (C) 2000-2004, DIY DataRecovery
.../000:07/LOG> Contact info: HTTP://www.DIYDataRecovery.nl
.../000:07/LOG> DPRunType: 2
.../000:07/LOG> DPUsrName: BROCKWELL
.../000:07/LOG> MemFree: 112Kb
.../000:07/LOG> LogDate: 02-28-2005
.../000:07/CFG> Dump Options requested
.../000:07/CFG> FilePath="1/.DP_FILES"
.../000:07/CFG> LogFilename="DP.LOG"
.../000:07/CFG> ReadRetries="0"
.../000:07/CFG> MaxReadErrors="255"
.../000:07/CFG> ReadDelay="1"
.../000:07/CFG> AutoSaveState="1"
.../000:07/CFG> DumpFoundSectors="0"
.../000:07/CFG> LogLevel="2"
.../000:07/CFG> DebugLevel="0"
.../000:07/CFG> MaxFatScan="51200"
.../000:07/CFG> MaxDataColEntries="512"
.../000:07/CFG> ScanType="0"
.../000:07/CFG> IgnoreF8FF="0"
.../000:07/CFG> ScanSignature="55AA"
.../000:07/13H> Ext13H installed test requested
.../000:07/13H> Disk found at 128
.../000:07/13H> Ext13H version: EDD-3.0
.../000:07/13H> Ext13H Support: Extended disk access functions
.../000:08/13H> Ext13H Support: Enhanced disk drive functions
.../000:08/13H> Disk 128 X13H data : 16383/16/63 490234752/512
.../000:08/13H> Disk found at 129
.../000:08/13H> Ext13H version: EDD-3.0
.../000:08/13H> Ext13H Support: Extended disk access functions
.../000:08/13H> Ext13H Support: Enhanced disk drive functions
.../000:08/13H> Disk 129 X13H data : 16383/16/63 312581808/512
.../000:08/13H> Ext13H tested ok
.../000:08/FDL> DiskList requested
.../000:08/FDL> Disk found at 128
.../000:08/FDL> Disk found at 129
.../000:08/LOG> Dump DiskList requested
### DISKLIST.ARRAY ###
__D_|________LBA_|___H_|__S_|__GB
128 | .490234752 | 255 | 63 | 233
129 | .312581808 | 255 | 63 | 149
..0 | .........0 | ..0 | .0 | ..0
..0 | .........0 | ..0 | .0 | ..0

.../000:08/IAS> Admi Sector found on disk 0 (128)
.../000:08/IAS> Admi Sector found on disk 1 (129)
.../000:08/EXE> FingerPrint found
.../000:08/PFC> PQstuff signature not detected on disk 0 (128)
.../000:08/PFC> PQstuff signature not detected on disk 1 (129)
.../000:08/PFC> Partition State Backup not found on disk 0 (128)
.../000:08/PFC> Partition State Backup not found on disk 1 (129)
.../000:09/MNU> - Main, Select Disk
.../000:10/USD> Disk 0 (128) selected
.../000:10/USD> Read/WriteErrors reset to 0
.../000:10/USD> DataCollection / PartList cleared
.../000:10/GSC> No Geo change detected for Disk 0 (128)
.../000:10/GSC> Geo for Disk 0 (128) saved as 0490234752255063
128/000:16/MNU> - Main, Disk Ops
128/000:18/MNU> - Disk Ops, Clone Disk
128/000:21/CLN> Source > Target disk, Clone will be cropped to fit
128/000:58/CLN> Start Clone Disk, from 0 (128) to 1 (129)
128/000:58/CLN> Clone Range is 196663 to 196667
128/000:58/CLN> CloneType is Normal
128/000:58/CLN> ReadErrors reset; ReadErrors until now : 0
128/000:58/CLN> Clone Disk Completed, ReadErrors is 0
128/001:07/MNU> - Disk Ops, Clone Disk
128/001:10/CLN> Source > Target disk, Clone will be cropped to fit
128/001:46/CLN> Start Clone Disk, from 0 (128) to 1 (129)
128/001:47/CLN> Clone Range is 196662 to 196667
128/001:47/CLN> CloneType is Normal
128/001:47/CLN> ReadErrors reset; ReadErrors until now : 0
128/002:03/RDS> ReadError at 196662 (12 61 40), specifics follow:
128/002:03/RDS> C = 1, T = Timeout (80h)
128/002:03/RDS> ReadRetries disabled, no further reading attempted
128/002:03/CLN> Sector Data replaced with F6 pattern
128/002:19/RDS> ReadError at 196663 (12 61 41), specifics follow:
128/002:19/RDS> C = 2, T = Timeout (80h)
128/002:19/RDS> ReadRetries disabled, no further reading attempted
128/002:20/CLN> Sector Data replaced with F6 pattern
128/002:36/RDS> ReadError at 196664 (12 61 42), specifics follow:
128/002:36/RDS> C = 3, T = Timeout (80h)
128/002:36/RDS> ReadRetries disabled, no further reading attempted
128/002:36/CLN> Sector Data replaced with F6 pattern
128/002:52/RDS> ReadError at 196665 (12 61 43), specifics follow:
128/002:52/RDS> C = 4, T = Timeout (80h)
128/002:52/RDS> ReadRetries disabled, no further reading attempted
128/002:52/CLN> Sector Data replaced with F6 pattern
128/003:09/RDS> ReadError at 196666 (12 61 44), specifics follow:
128/003:09/RDS> C = 5, T = Timeout (80h)
128/003:09/RDS> ReadRetries disabled, no further reading attempted
128/003:09/CLN> Sector Data replaced with F6 pattern
128/003:24/RDS> ReadError at 196667 (12 61 45), specifics follow:
128/003:24/RDS> C = 6, T = Timeout (80h)
128/003:24/RDS> ReadRetries disabled, no further reading attempted
128/003:24/CLN> Sector Data replaced with F6 pattern
128/003:25/CLN> Clone Disk Completed, ReadErrors is 6
128/003:38/MNU> - Main, Quit
128/003:38/LOG> RunTime: 003:38
128/003:38/LOG> ### CLOSE LOG ###

Product you are using: DiskPatch 2

Hello,

I can't comment on Partition Table Doctor because I don't know how they access a disk.

When we read a sector we basically ask the system BIOS (int 13h) to do that for us by placing certain values directly into CPU registers. The BIOS let's the requesting program or OS (DiskPatch in this case) know if all went well by placing a return code in a CPU register. It's here where we find the value 80h.

The read errors, 80h indicates the disk 'times out', it doesn't reply. In our experience, with return code 80h you *do* want to raise the value for read-retries because often you will eventually get a good read.

When you boot the DiskPatch boot diskette with the default options (boot menu item 1 or 3) an UDMA driver is loaded. This driver intercepts all int 13h calls. The first thing I would try is without loading the UDMA driver (options 2 and 4).

Also make sure the source and destination disks are on seperate channels (when dealing with (x)ATA disks).

As a last resort I'd try to clone the disk in reverse direction.

--
Kind regards,
Joep