MultiDrive – free backup, clone & wipe disk utility from Atola Technology

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 13 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: clone the unallocated space
PostPosted: June 2nd, 2014, 20:13 
Offline

Joined: March 28th, 2011, 17:45
Posts: 441
Location: italy
Does somebody know how to clone the unallocated space of a ntfs partition?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: clone the unallocated space
PostPosted: June 2nd, 2014, 23:10 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: December 4th, 2012, 1:35
Posts: 3903
Location: Adelaide, Australia
technically, if it is unallocated, it isnt part of an NTFS partition, else it would be allocated..If I have it right.. do you mean clone the unallocated space on a disk where there also is an NTFS partition?
or do you mean free space inside the NTFS partition that the cloning tool skips.

Could you clone the whole disk and manually remove the partitions, using DMDE for the offset info, leaving the unallocated space

I havent dabbled too much in partitioning at a hex level so I may be off the mark.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: clone the unallocated space
PostPosted: June 2nd, 2014, 23:44 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 16960
Location: Australia
Use ddrescue and specify the starting and ending LBAs of the unallocated space.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: clone the unallocated space
PostPosted: June 3rd, 2014, 4:15 
Offline

Joined: March 28th, 2011, 17:45
Posts: 441
Location: italy
@ HaQue
well i try to explan better:

i need to clone the unallocated LBA's of a NTFS partition.
so for example: this partition is 500GB, 150GB allocated to files, 350GB unallocated to files.
i want to get a image of 350 GB, of slack space and unallocated space ONLY.
(maybe i shoud have posted into forensic section)

@ fzabkar
didn't see that function in its guide, are u sure about it?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: clone the unallocated space
PostPosted: June 3rd, 2014, 4:29 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: December 4th, 2012, 1:35
Posts: 3903
Location: Adelaide, Australia
if files are fragmented, this could be hit or miss
Im wondering what the purpose would be for


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: clone the unallocated space
PostPosted: June 3rd, 2014, 4:45 
Offline

Joined: March 28th, 2011, 17:45
Posts: 441
Location: italy
HaQue wrote:
if files are fragmented, this could be hit or miss
Im wondering what the purpose would be for


sure files are fragmented, but there is a map/list of this fragments, so it should be easy for a software to exclude the lbas referring to allocated files.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: clone the unallocated space
PostPosted: June 3rd, 2014, 4:47 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 16960
Location: Australia
positivebit wrote:
@ fzabkar
didn't see that function in its guide, are u sure about it?

As Haque has explained, the term "unallocated" has a different meaning than the one you intended. Therefore my advice is not applicable and ddrescue cannot do what you want.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: clone the unallocated space
PostPosted: June 3rd, 2014, 4:56 
Offline

Joined: March 28th, 2011, 17:45
Posts: 441
Location: italy
@ fzabkar:
yes u right, correct term is free space not unallocated. :lol:

there is a way to clone a existing partition including only the free space and slack space?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: clone the unallocated space
PostPosted: June 3rd, 2014, 5:22 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 16960
Location: Australia
I've never heard of anyone wanting to do what you want, but I know that DR tools can search free clusters and the slack space at the end of files. That said, most files don't end on a sector boundary, so how would you handle a partial sector?

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: clone the unallocated space
PostPosted: June 3rd, 2014, 5:38 
Offline

Joined: March 28th, 2011, 17:45
Posts: 441
Location: italy
fzabkar wrote:
I've never heard of anyone wanting to do what you want, but I know that DR tools can search free clusters and the slack space at the end of files. That said, most files don't end on a sector boundary, so how would you handle a partial sector?


you mean this ?
http://blog.priveonlabs.com/sec_blog.ph ... &tb=1&pb=1

we can't deal with partial sector...that's impossible so far i understand.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: clone the unallocated space
PostPosted: June 3rd, 2014, 5:38 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 16960
Location: Australia
Could you image the entire drive and then use a wipe utility to zero every file? This should leave the free clusters untouched, but you would need to verify whether the tool overwrites the slack space.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: clone the unallocated space
PostPosted: June 3rd, 2014, 8:43 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: February 9th, 2009, 16:13
Posts: 2574
Location: Ontario, Canada
Easy with DeepSpar

1. select all sectors by mft and bitmap
2. invert selection
3. click "restart scan" on the start scan screen
4. wipe unprocessed sectors when project is complete (this clears out the MFT, MBR and Bitmap sectors read to get the original selection)

_________________
Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: clone the unallocated space
PostPosted: June 3rd, 2014, 8:54 
Offline

Joined: March 28th, 2011, 17:45
Posts: 441
Location: italy
Thanx will give it a try and report back here.


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 13 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 44 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group