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                  |            Partition saving            |
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                  |    http://www.partition-saving.com     |
                  |  Copyright (c) 1999-2006 D. Guibouret  |
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                                      FAQ
                        Last update: February 10th 2006

Index: 
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Q  1- Can I split a backup file into several smaller files that will each fit 
onto a CD (700 Mbytes), even if use compression? 

Q  2- Can Partition Saving copy only the occupied sectors of a partition? 

Q  3- Do you plan to provide such an option in the future? 

Q  4- If I want to restore a partition, do I need to use an identical disc 
having the same format as the original? 

Q  5- Sometimes it takes a long time to switch from the maximum file size 
window to the save window. Why? 

Q  6- Using compression takes a long time. Would not it be quicker to save an 
uncompressed image file and use an archive utility to compress it later? 

Q  7- Can I save NTFS partitions? 

Q  8- Will Partition Saving preserve the long filenames on Windows partitions?

Q  9- Is Partition Saving compatible with Windows NT, 2000 or XP? 

Q 10- How do I create a boot floppy? 

Q 11- Why does it take such a long time to create a backup file? 

Q 12- I cannot manage to create backup file on CD. 

Q 13- Are files created using a prior version compatible with the current one?

Q 14- What could be done in case of error? 

Q 15- Drive letter seems to not be correct. How could I know which is the 
partition I want to save? 

Q 16- When I run program, nothing appears. 

Q 17- What could be done when I get the error message "A sector containing 
parameters for filesystem could not be read"? 

Q 18- Could I save my partition on an USB storage device? 

Q 19- Could I perform incremental backup? 

Q 20- Could I extract only some files from backup? 

Q 21- Will my SATA/RAID/... disk be recognised? 

Q 22- Displayed partition table is empty or has only one partition when I know
there are several, what is wrong? 

Q 23- How can I reach the "mount partition" window without mouse? 

Q 24- I cannot create files on NTFS partition. 

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Q 1- Can I split a backup file into several smaller files that will each fit 
onto a CD (700 Mbytes), even if use compression? 
A- Yes. The total size of the file is as it is written (even after compression
is used). 
Be aware that for this program 1Mb is equal to 1024*1024 bytes (everybody does
not agree on Mb size, it is sometimes 1000*1000 or 1000*1024 bytes). 

Q 2- Can Partition Saving copy only the occupied sectors of a partition? 
Q 3- Do you plan to provide such an option in the future? 
A- Since V2.20 you can save occupied sectors only for FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and 
ext2 partitions (also for NTFS partition since V2.30). 
I depend on OS information to determine which sections of a partition are 
occupied. Since I do not have this information for other partition types, 
occupied sectors only cannot be done for those. 
If you want to save place when saving partitions different from FAT, ext2 and 
NTFS one, you could use a program that set all bytes of unoccupied sectors of 
a partition to the same value such as with compression this will reduce amount
of space needed. If you do not have such a program, you could use the advice 
from Mr Lumir Mik: write a program that creates a file and fills it with the 
same value. Then erase this file. 

Q 4- If I want to restore a partition, do I need to use an identical disc 
having the same format as the original? 
A- Yes if you have saved all sectors of the partition (that was the only 
option for versions prior to V2.20). Furthermore you can only restore a 
partition on an identical one and to the same disk location. It is a 
significant limitation but data can be dependent on the location of the 
partition on the hard disk. The limitation relating to the type of the 
partition could be resolved by writing the partition table when restoring, but
it is a feature that I have not incorporated yet. 
Since version 2.20, if you saved only occupied sectors of a FAT or ext2 
partition (or NTFS for V2.30), you could restore it on a partition with a 
different format if certain size constraints are regarded. Nevertheless, the 
disk must have the same sector size as the saved partition, and the partition 
type must be the same (or must be compatible since V2.30). 

Q 5- Sometimes it takes a long time to switch from the maximum file size 
window to the save window. Why? 
A- This happens when you save your partition over an existing file. If this 
file is large (e.g. result of a previous backup), it takes DOS some time to 
delete it. Note that from version 2.10, the file is deleted between the file 
name window and the maximum file size one (or before the save window in the 
case of batch mode). 

Q 6- Using compression takes a long time. Would not it be quicker to save an 
uncompressed image file and use an archive utility to compress it later? 
A- It depends on the level of compression that you use with your archiver. If 
you use the maximum level you will waste time since you have to access the 
drive two more times. If you reduce the level of compression, you will save 
time but use more space. Note that starting from version 2.10, you can choose 
a level of compression that will allow you to make a compromise between time 
required to save and disk space needed (for V2.00, the only level of 
compression was maximum). 

Q 7- Can I save NTFS partitions? 
A- Yes, you can. From version 2.30, you can even save occupied sectors only. 
However since Microsoft have never published specifications on NTFS structure,
this was done with using some incomplete information and some rare features 
that appear in only a few instances are not supported. 
DOS being not able to access NTFS partitions, you need to have a FAT partition
that could be read/write by DOS (either another partition on hard drive, or 
using network mount, ZIP disk, ...) or use the internal NTFS partition 
mounting in order to create backup files. Some programs allow DOS to use NTFS 
partitions (see http://www.cgsecurity.org or http://www.sysinternals.com, but 
be aware that last one is not compatible with Partition Saving) but in this 
case you should not use the saving a partition on itself feature. 

Q 8- Will Partition Saving preserve the long filenames on Windows partitions? 
A- Yes, it is one of the main goal of the program. Indeed, it is not possible 
to save/restore all files under Windows as some are protected because they are
in use. Consequently they must be saved under DOS (or another OS that allows 
access to Windows partitions). But since DOS cannot recognize long filenames, 
either saving or restoring must be done at level where file notion does not 
exist, by physically saving the partition. Moreover this preserves the 
relative order of sectors, which may have an influence on the operation of 
some programs. 

Q 9- Is Partition Saving compatible with Windows NT, 2000 or XP? 
A- Yes, but you need to boot from a DOS floppy disk or CDROM and have access 
to a FAT partition (please read also question 7). From version 3.00 you could 
also create saving files on NTFS partition, but for this you have first to 
create files from Windows with the dedicated option then boot to DOS to 
perform saving. 

Q 10- How do I create a boot floppy? 
A- For Windows 9x, click: Start->Settings->Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs,
choose the "Startup disk" tab. Insert an empty floppy disk into drive, and 
click on the "Create Disk" button. 
If this method is not available for Windows XP, you could choose the "Format" 
option by right-clicking on floppy drive in Windows Explorer and choose the 
"Copy system files" option. However in the case the floppy disk is not 
configured, you have to configure the floppy disk manually. For this purpose 
you have to create two text files CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT on the floppy 
disk. In CONFIG.sys you have to install: 

  - The CDROM driver file if you wish to use the CDROM drive. Its name is 
    usually ATAPICD.SYS, CDROM.SYS or <your CDROM mark>.SYS (there are also 
    some generic drivers that come with Windows). For the driver to be loader,
    you have to write "DEVICE=<file name> /D:<name>" where <file name> is the 
    CDROM driver filename and <name> is any name of you choice that is less 
    than 8 characters (ex: CD0001).
  - The driver file for the monitor. The one delivered by Windows is called 
    DISPLAY.SYS. For it to be loaded you must write "DEVICE=DISPLAY.SYS 
    CON=(EGA,,1)" (I doubt whether anybody does not have an EGA compatible 
    monitor).
  - Finally you must configure the country (this is not needed for English 
    people). To do that to must use COUNTRY.SYS file and write to CONFIG.SYS 
    "COUNTRY=<number1>,<number2>,COUNTRY.SYS". The first number is the country
    code (033 for France) and the second one is the codepage that will be used
    (850 for France).

In the second file (AUTOEXEC.BAT) you have to put: 

  - The program providing access to the CDROM. This is provided by Windows and
    is called MSCDEX.EXE. To use it, you have to write "MSCDEX.EXE /D:<name>" 
    where <name> is the same <name> written for the CDROM driver line in 
    CONFIG.SYS.
  - The program that configures the codepage you use (it will allow you to 
    configure your keyboard) (this is not needed for English people). For this
    purpose you need two lines, one to prepare the codepage and the second to 
    select it: "MODE CON CODEPAGE PREPARE=((<number>) EGA.CPI)" is the first 
    line and "MODE CON CODEPAGE SELECT=<number>" is the second one. Each 
    <number> must be the same and must be equal to second number in the 
    "COUNTRY" line of the CONFIG.SYS file (therefore 850 for France).
  - Finally the instruction to configure your keyboard correctly (e.g. for 
    French people it will access AZERTY mode in place of QWERTY). To do this 
    you have to write "KEYB FR,,KEYBOARD.SYS" FR that is the country code (for
    France, so you have to insert a different code for other languages, or 
    omitting this line could work).

To make sure all this works, you have to check that all files are on the 
floppy disk (CDROM driver, DISPLAY.SYS, COUNTRY.SYS, MSCDEX.EXE, EGA.CPI, 
KEYB.COM, MODE.COM, KEYBOARD.SYS). This is a minimal generic configuration 
(e.g. you could add mouse by adding a MOUSE.COM or MOUSE.EXE line (depends of 
file name) into AUTOEXEC.BAT file (and checking for the existence of this file
on the floppy). For some countries instead of using KEYBOARD.SYS you may have 
to use KEYBRD2.SYS for certain keyboards). 
For others versions of Windows, or if what is described above does not work, 
search the Windows help files (search for something like "boot disk"). 
You could also use ready-made floppy disk (e.g.: "Bart's bootdisk" at 
http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk). 
Note: if you have a Windows 9X boot disk, you could use to save a Windows XP 
partition (you have to use at least a Windows 95 OSR2 boot disk if you want to
access a FAT32 partition). 
Once the boot disk is created, copy the savepart.exe on it (use another floppy
disk if there is insufficient free space, or a DOS accessible partition on 
hard drive). Then restart your computer with keeping floppy disk into drive. 
This floppy will boot. Once you have "A:\>" prompt, type <program 
directory>\savepart.exe (where <program directory> is where you put the 
savepart.exe (ex: C:\savepart\savepart.exe)) or change disk if you have 
written it to a separate floppy and run it. 
In case your computer does not boot from the floppy drive but still boots from
the hard disk, you have to change boot sequence in the BIOS (consult BIOS 
documentation to learn how to do this). 

Q 11- Why does it take such a long time to create a backup file? 
A- Time required to write an image depends on 4 factors: 

  - partition contents.
  - choosing to save only occupied sectors or all sectors.
  - compression level used.
  - whether you write the backup file to a hard-drive other than the one that 
    contains the source partition.

You also can speed up saving/restoring time by using -nvd and -nvf options. 
But in case your disk begins to be damaged, some errors could be not found and
that will result in a bad save or restoration. 
Note: I get a 30% speed improvment using these options, but it seems it is 
very dependant on motherboard and disk, as some users report me getting a 
great speed improvment (up to 80%) when using these options. 

You can also use partition mounting instead of DOS access because it goes 
faster, but it needs you reboot computer at end of execution. 

Some people use also successfully DOS UDMA drivers, but you have first to find
them and read how to use them. 

Regarding the compression level, here are some figures I obtained doing some 
trials (these depend on the computer and partition contents, but they are 
provided to give some idea), a standard figure of 100 has been adopted for 
uncompressed files: 

             +-------------+---------------------------+---------+
             | Compression |       Time required       |  File   |
             |             |    VS. CPU speed (MHz)    |         |
             |    level    |  33  |  700 | 1700 | Ave. |  size   |
             +-------------+------+------+------+------+---------+
             |      0      |  100 |  100 |  100 |  100 |  100.00 |
             |      1      |  371 |  127 |   82 |  194 |   54.15 |
             |      2      |  384 |  130 |   83 |  199 |   53.53 |
             |      3      |  419 |  137 |   84 |  213 |   53.06 |
             |      4      |  449 |  142 |   85 |  225 |   52.33 |
             |      5      |  525 |  156 |   88 |  256 |   51.86 |
             |      6      |  644 |  179 |   94 |  306 |   51.64 |
             |      7      |  729 |  194 |   99 |  341 |   51.57 |
             |      8      | 1065 |  255 |  118 |  479 |   51.53 |
             |      9      | 1595 |  348 |  150 |  697 |   51.51 |
             +-------------+------+------+------+------+---------+

As you can see the higher the deflating level, the greatest the time required.
Also very little space is gained beyond the first setting (in some rare case 
(not shown here), you can even loose space). So choosing the maximum 
compression level is not the best option (even more for a slow processor). 
Worthy of note is in case where you have a powerful processor, it takes less 
time to compress the data (low level) than to write it uncompressed. 
Remark: restoration time is not really dependent upon compression level 
(disregarding the case of zero compression). 

Q 12- I cannot manage to create the backup file on CD. 
A- CD burner manufacturers rarely provide DOS driver for their hardware. So 
you must first save backup files to your hard drive. Then when you boot into 
an OS from where you could burn CDs, you can burn these files to CD. Be aware 
to not use a too high burning speed because some people get problems to read 
CD from DOS because of a too high burning speed. 

Q 13- Are files created using a prior version compatible with the current one?
A- This information is in the changes.txt file. As a general rule, files 
created with an older version can be used by a more recent version. The 
converse is often true, but not in the case of a new type of filesystem. 

Q 14- What could be done in case of error? 
A- As a general rule you can contact me by mail 
(damien.guibouret@partition-saving.com) and I will try to answer you as soon 
as possible. I will need all details on what happens (what you want to do, 
what options you choose, ...). Moreover if error message has a "Call tree:" or
"Call frame traceback:" appears, you have to send me following values (at 
least the 10 first). It will allow me to find easily where error occurs. In 
answer, I could ask you more details (as downloading 
diskinfo/partinfo/fileinfo program) or to do some tries to better understand 
what happens. 

Q 15- Drive letter seems not to be correct. How could I know which is the 
partition I want to save? 
A- This problem can occur by example when you have NTFS partitions. As DOS is 
not able to recognize them, a drive letter will not be assigned to it and 
those assigned to FAT partitions are shifted. The simplest way to know which 
drive a partition is, is to give to each partition a different name. As this 
name is displayed, you just have to choose the one that has the name of those 
to save. But for FAT partition, partition name could be stored into two 
places, and depending on those that is taken, it could seem to be wrong. In 
the same way if a FAT partition has "NO NAME" as name, it is because it has no
name (and not because it has the name "NO NAME"). In this case, another way to
know which partition to choose, is to look at the size of the partition. 

Q 16- When I run program, nothing appears. 
A- This could be a problem with screen display. Try using program with -bui 
option (savepart -bui). If nothing appears again, try -cui option (savepart 
-cui). If there is still nothing on screen, problem is certainly not with 
screen display and so it is better to contact me. 

Q 17- What could be done when I get the error message "A sector containing 
parameters for filesystem could not be read"? 
A- This message is displayed when program has found incoherency into 
filesystem or when a filesystem sector is damaged. One thing that could be 
done is to try to repair it with corresponding program ("scandisk <drive 
letter>:" for Windows 9x/ME, "chkdsk /f <drive letter>:" for Windows NT/(2000 
?), "chkdsk /p <drive letter>:" for Windows XP/(2000 ?), "fsck <device name>" 
for Linux). If error is due to a bad sector you have to do surface test to try
to correct it. One it is done, you could try saving partition again. If it 
still does not work and that is not due to a bad sector you could contact me. 

Q 18- Could I save my partition on an USB storage device? 
A- Yes, you can as there was now some USB drivers for DOS. So you can download
one, add it into CONFIG.SYS file and use the newly created drive to write 
saving file on. To find an USB driver for DOS and get more help on it, you can
search on Internet or take a look at 
http://www.stefan2000.com/darkehorse/PC/DOS/Drivers/USB/ (the one I try 
without any problem is the Motto Hairu one, but I did not try the CD-writer 
feature as I do not have an USB one). Please notice that some people get an 
error message telling that file could not be created or written. In this case,
if it is not because file already exists and has read-only flag, you have to 
use the "-nvf" option for program to work. 

Q 19- Could I perform incremental backup? 
A- Incremental backup is not available and will certainly never be. Partition 
Saving saves sectors and not files. So to know if a sector shall be saved 
again, it would have to compare each sector one by one, that could be very 
long and do that a lot of sectors are saved again in case of operation that 
modify a lot of sectors (as defragmenting). 

Q 20- Could I extract only some files from backup? 
A- This is available but only with FAT partition for the moment with using 
driver mechanism. As it could be run only from DOS, this allows only 
extracting short name files. Adding this feature is planned (neither planned 
date nor version for the moment). 

Q 21- Will my SATA/RAID/... disk be recognised? 
A- I can not answer you, as I can not test all disks and controller types. As 
a generalisation, if it is natively supported into your BIOS, you will 
certainly not have problem. You could perhaps need to get some DOS drivers for
it to work. The simplest way is to try: if disk appears into disk list with a 
correct size, then displayed partition table is correct and for a known type 
partition, saving occupied sectors only is available, there will certainly be 
no problem. For information I got some people telling me that they have no 
problem with their SATA or RAID disk (thanks to them for information). 

Q 22- Displayed partition table is empty or has only one partition when I know
there are several, what is wrong? 
A- If partition table is empty, this could be because program found an 
incoherence in it (some partitions overlap, end after disk end, ...). You can 
download partinfo.zip to display it and see what is wrong. 
If you get only one partition when several are defined, this could be because 
of dynamic disk usage (new partitioning scheme that is not supported) or 
because of using some security program as Norton GoBack. In first case you 
could nothing (do not save the whole disk as dynamic disk allows putting 
information on several disks and so some data will be missing). In second 
case, you have to deactivate the corresponding program (refer to this program 
documentation to know how to perform it). 

Q 23- How can I reach the "mount partition" window without mouse? 
A- This window could be reached with using Alt+Tab (twice in case window 
giving free space on drives is displayed) or Ctrl+Tab keys. To come back to 
window to enter filename, you have to use one of these keys combinations 
again. 

Q 24- I cannot create files on NTFS partition. 
A- This is standard program behaviour: from DOS it is not able to create files
on a NTFS partition. You have to create files from Windows with the 
corresponding program option (or with creating empty files with Windows 
explorer), then boot back to DOS to be able to use these files as backup files
with mounting the corresponding partition. 

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