Also see Hex Tools and Sound Programs & CD Players.

Free FDISK — Disk partition management utility.

unrated

[added 2000-04-18, updated 2003-05-13]

• Supports HDs up to 128GB
• Implements "standard" FDISK interface.
• Has extended command-line support: can use in batch files. Command-line support is compatible with Microsoft's undocumented FDISK commands.
• Flexible design allows for both occasional use and large scale automated OS roll-outs / cloning projects.
• Includes BootEasy, a compact multiboot loader.
• Customizable with an easy to use configuration file.
• Allows use of boot loaders from other operating systems.
• Supports Non-DOS partition types.

Free FDISK is Open Source and licensed under the GNU GPL.

Author: Brian Reifsnyder (2003).

2003-05-13: v1.2.1.

See the Free FDISK Home Page for latest versions.

XFDisk (eXtended FDisk) — Open source FDISK replacement with boot manager.

unrated

[added 2000-12-13, updated 2005-12-09]

XFDisk is an open source FDISK which resembles OS/2's. It can also function as a boot manager. Requires 80286+, HGC, MDA, EGA or VGA card (80x25 display), DOS 3.3+. Available in three languages, only the German package includes a manual. Distributed under the GNU General Public License.

Authors: Florian Painke & Ulrich Müller, Germany (2001). Suggested by Timo Gransch.

2001-09-09: v0.9.3 beta. Last version, development has ended.

Get more info & source at the XFDisk homepage, in English — auf Deutsch.

Partition Manager (Ranish Partition Manager) — Disk partition and boot manager, FAT16/32.

unrated

[added 1998-06-15, updated 2005-12-09]

Untested here, but praised by other users. From the docs:

Private users, educational and non-profit organizations may evaluate the program for the period of 10 years, then they must pay registration fee of $10 per household/classroom/department or stop using the program. If you cannot afford $10, you may send me a postcard with a nice view of your city, and I will count you as a registered user.

Commercial users: see docs.

Also see the related XOSL boot manager.

Author: Mikhail Ranish (2002).

2002-06-09: v2.44beta. Earlier versions are still available, including 2.40 stable (2001-02-08), and 2.37 (1998-09-15), runs on 8086.

Download part244.zip (136K).

Go to the Partition Manager Page for other versions, help/info, screenshots. Also available: CVT – converts FAT16 to FAT32.

PRESIZER — Non-destructively resize disk partitions, FAT16/32.

unrated

[added 1998-06-15, updated 2001-01-20]

This program does not intend to replace FDISK. It's rather complementary to it. You will still need FDISK if you want to create and delete partit ions. Partition Resizer processes only existing partitions. Also, Partition Resizer does not convert FAT16 (older DOS partitions) into FAT32.

• Fixed a bug with multiple primary non-FAT partition moving
• Fixed a graphics mode problem with some Graphics cards that default to 16 pixel character height
• Fixed a problem with the 2nd option (you'll now be able to change a FAT16 partition's cluster size)
• Minor documentation update

Author: John Lagonikas, Greece (2000).

2000-12-31: v1.3.4.

Download presz134.zip (96K).

FIPS — Non-destructive partition splitting program, FAT16/32.

unrated

[added 1999-01-30, updated 2005-12-09]

A veteran DOS utility that's been updated to handle FAT32. GNU GPL, C++ source included.

FIPS reduces the size of a partition by changing some values in the partition table and boot sector. It does not change the formatting of the partition, especially not the cluster size and the size of the file allocation table (FAT). Therefore the reduced partition will have a FAT that is in part unused, but this is not a problem for DOS.

From the free space that is won by this, FIPS creates a new _primary_ DOS partition.

If you want to use the new partition under a different OS (e.g. Linux), use its supplied fdisk program to make any necessary changes (refer to the OS manuals).

If you want to use the new partition under DOS/Windows, you can use it as it is (after formatting!), but be aware of the following:

According to the official references, DOS can only have one primary partition. All DOS versions (at least from v5.0 on) will happily work with multiple primary partitions, but this is an 'undocumented feature'. If you want to follow the official rules, you can delete the new partition with fdisk and create an extended partition in its place.

There are reasons for having multiple primary partitions, among them the possibility to boot from different partitions by changing the active partition with fdisk.

Author: Arno Schäfer, Germany (1998).

1998-05-11: v2.0.

Download fips20.zip (159K).

More info at the FIPS page.

Partition Saving (Savepart) — Copy, save and restore hard-drive partition and other data.

unrated

[added 2001-08-14, updated 2006-04-01]

Partition Saving can copy and save an entire hard drive, a partition only, a Master Boot Record, or a floppy disk to a file. Saved files can be used to restore data after a drive crash. The program can compress files (using gzip's algorithm) and split them (to fit onto target disks). With FAT12/16/32, ext2/3 and NTFS partitions, all sectors can be saved, or sectors in use only.

While the program recognizes NTFS partitions, it can't create them. Solution: Create them under Windows, and then reboot to DOS.

For complete details, see the online manual, in English — en Français.

Author: Damien Gibouret, France (2006). Suggested by Lars-Erik Sandberg.

2006-02-10: v3.10.

Download savepart.zip (484K).

Get more info, utilities and documentation at Partition saving — Sauvegarde de partition.

STBFP — Save and/or restore Boot Record, Partition Table, and FAT.

unrated

Three small programs, STB.COM (Save The Boot), STP.COM (Save The Partition), and STF.COM (Save The Fat) compare the current boot record, partition table and File Allocation Table with backup copies, and restore the current records from the backups, if necessary (FAT16 only?). Not guaranteed to run properly under Windows or any other multitasking OS. Free for personal use only.

Author: Jad Saliba, Canada (1997).

1997-09-25: v2.0.

Download stbfp20.zip (45K).

 Also see Partition Support.

NTFS (NTCP) — Windows NT File System driver & utils for DOS.

unrated

[added 1999-07-03, updated 2004-10-10]

This DOS driver / util set provides read/write access to NTFS drives or partitions. The components of the set can work from a boot diskette, or from a DOS partition of a multi-partition, multi-boot hard disk. First run the driver ntcp, then any of the other utils. 8GB and larger disks are supported.

32-bit DJGPP binaries, require 80386+ and a DOS Protected Mode Interface (provided by CWSDPMI [included] or by OS).Source code also included. Ported from Linux. Free under GNU General Public License.

ntcp		Reads files
ntchange		Changes files
ntdir		dir command
ntmkdir		mkdir command
ntdump		Displays low-level disk structures
ntcat		Dumps contents of NTFS file to stdout
ntgrep		Searches for text string
chntpw		Changes NT password
samdump		Extracts NT password info

Author: DOS versions by Christophe Grenier, France (2002).

2002-03-25: v1.1.1.1 (2001-03-30) reissued.

Download either one: ntfs.zip (600K), or ntfs.tgz (571K).

Get more info, English — Français, at the NTFS page.

NTFSDOS — Windows NT File System Driver for DOS/Win3.x/Win95.

unrated

[added 1998-08-16, updated 2005-07-01]

NTFSDOS.EXE is a read-only network file system driver for DOS/Windows that is able to recognize and mount NTFS drives for transparent access. It makes NTFS drives appear indistinguishable from standard FAT drives, providing the ability to navigate, view and execute programs on them from DOS or from Windows, including from the Windows 3.1 File Manager and Windows 95 Explorer.

Notes: Runs from HD or removable disk. Mounts NTFS volumes formatted by WinXP. Under DOS 5.0+, displays only 8.3 filenames. Under MS-DOS 7 (Win95), displays full Long File Names.

Authors: Mark Russinovich, Bryce Cogswell / Sysinternals (2001).

2001-09-11: v3.02R+.

Download NtfsDos.zip (37K).

Go to the NTFSDOS page for lots more info, and a Win95/98 version.

Partition Support — Misc. command line disk utils for experts.

unrated

[added 2000-01-01, updated 2006-03-14]

The command line disk sector and partition tools in this group are intended for advanced users. Minimal documentation. All programs listed here run under plain DOS or Win9x/ME, and operate on partitions created by DOS, WinNT/2K/XP, OS/2 and other OSes.

Chsdir		Lists contents of a FAT partition, evaluates integrity of lost partitions.
Cyldir		A recovery tool. Searches for existing or lost directories, in an existing or lost FAT partition. Found files can be copied to a good partition.
Editpart		Command line partition table editor. For experts.
FindBad		Locates bad sectors.
FindBSD		Searches for BSD disk labels.
Finddir		Searches for subdirectories, calculates the location of cluster number two.
Findext2		Searches for Linux ext2/ext3 superblocks, calculates possible partition location.
Findfat		Searches for FAT and estimates its condition.
FindNTFS		NTFS data recovery tool, lists or copies files.
Findpart		Searches for lost FAT, NTFS, HPFS, BeOS, Linux and swap partitions.
Findword		Searches a disk for occurrences of a word or sentence.
FP.SYS		DOS device driver, assigns read-only drive letters for lost FAT partitions.
GB32		Determines if a 32GB limit is present, for a disk larger than 32 GB.
Getsect		Retrieves HD sectors, writes them to a file.
Pqrp		Examines PQRP partitions that were originally FAT32 partitions.
Putsect		Writes a sector to disk.
Setsize		Sets the ATA Max Address (size of disk).

Author: Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, Denmark (2000-2005).

2000–2005: Various issue dates and versions.

Download individual programs, including Win9x/NT/2K/XP versions of some of them, from the author's Utilities page.

DFSee (Display File Systems) — Disk analysis and repair utility ([V]FAT[32], HPFS, NTFS).

unrated

[added 1998-07-05, updated 2004-08-07]

DFSee is a comprehensive disk sector and file systems information / repair utility for power users. Handles information from HPFS, NTFS and various FAT partitions. Includes OS/2, DOS and NT versions. Capabilities include sector reading, du mping and editing, bad sector scanning, sector checksums, file system analysis (e.g., displays errors in FS), MBR walking, file recovery, clear partition-tables sectors (MBR/EBR), clear LVM information sectors and/or all partition boot-records...and so on.

Recent versions include an FDISK module that also supports the OS/2 bootmanager..."you can FDISK your system from a DOS diskette, without any user intervention...reboot and restart a particular partition from DOS or Windows NT. Virtual disks allow experimenting with partitions without modifying the real physical disk."

Author: Jan van Wijk, Netherlands (2001). Suggested by Lars-Erik Sandberg.

2001-07-09: v3.42. Last freeware version – beginning with v4.0 (2001-07-24) DFSee is pay shareware.

Download dfsee342.zip (843K).

DFSee page.

TestDisk — Check partition and boot sectors, recover lost partition.

unrated

[added 1999-08-29, updated 2006-08-21]

TestDisk queries the BIOS (DOS/Win9x) or the OS (Linux, FreeBSD, Windows) in order to find the Hard Disks and their characteristics (LBA size and CHS geometry). TestDisk does a quick check of your disk's structure and compares it with your Partition Table for entry errors. If the Partition Table has entry errors, TestDisk can repair them. If you have missing partitions or a completely empty Partition Table, TestDisk can search for partitions and create a new Table or even a new MBR if necessary.

Usage: TestDisk [/log] [/debug] [/dump] [file or device]
       TestDisk /list [/log] [file or device]

/log          : create a testdisk.log file
/debug        : add debug information
/dump         : dump raw sectors
/list         : display current partitions

• BeFS (BeOS)
• BSD disklabel (FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD)
• CramFS (Compressed File System)
• DOS/Windows FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32
• HFS, Hierarchical File System
• JFS, IBM's Journaled File System
• Linux Ext2 and Ext3
• Linux Raid
• Linux Swap (versions 1 and 2)
• LVM and LVM2, Linux Logical Volume Manager
• Netware NSS
• NTFS (Windows NT/2K/XP/2003)
• ReiserFS 3.5 and 3.6
• UFS (Sun/BSD/...)
• XFS, SGI's Journaled File System

Runs under DOS 6.x, FreeDOS, Win9x box. 32-bit DJGPP build, requires 80386+ and a DOS Protected Mode Interface (provided by CWSDPMI [included] or the OS). The download package & some files have Win32 Long File Names. Open Source under GNU Public License. Package also includes PhotoRec.

Author: Christophe Grenier, France (2006).

Go to the TestDisk page for more info. Get source code and compilations for Windows NT4/2K/XP/2K3, Linux, Unixes & Mac OS X at TestDisk Download.

For *experienced* users only. Normally run from a bootdisk (unless you're editing a floppy). Also see: DFSEE disk analyzer (w/ sector edit capability); LSD, a completely safe disk sector viewer that can write to a file.

DISKED — Recovers data from disks with damaged BOOT sector, FATs, and directory areas.

unrated

[added 2000-10-22, updated 2004-08-07]

DISKED is a simple to use disk editor and data recovery program for IBM-PC/XT/AT and compatible computers. It allows the editing of any sector and the saving of sectors to a file. DISKED provides a way to recover data from disks with a damaged BOOT sector, damaged FATs, and damaged directory areas, allowing the saving of otherwise lost data.

Corrupt data can be a foreign type of media (not really corrupt but able to be interpreted), a disk that was inadvertently written to by power failures or system crashes, or, on single floppy systems (like laptops), a disk was changed at the wrong time causing another disk's data written on it.

Some non-DOS floppy disk formats will be able to be read if they are formatted for 512 byte sectors.

Author: Gregg Jennings (1995).

1995-11-19: v2.91.

Download diske291.zip (88K).

WDe — Disk editor capable of editing physical disks.

unrated

[added 2002-07-14, updated 2006-03-14]

This program does a lot, but is easy to use. From the docs:

WDe is designed to be a modular disk editor capable of allowing users to manipulate data stored in various ways on different kinds of storage mediums... currently capable of editing logical, physical and CD-Rom drives on MS-DOS V4.0+ or compatible. It should (theoretically) be able to edit drives up to 2 TB in size.

• Menu system... controlled by the function keys on the keyboard
• Saves/restores sectors, MBR, FAT and partitions, to/from files
• Search functions may be used to find strings, hex, FATs, boot sectors, MBRs, and directories
• The fill functions allow the filling of sectors with a repeated string or byte. It also has an invert function which takes each byte and reverses each bit; this is ideal for securely overwriting data when used in conjunction with the random fill function...

Author: Ben Cadieux (2005).

Released under GNU General Public License. ASM source included.

2005-08-29: v3.0.

Download wde_v30b.zip (87K).

PTS DiskEditor — Disk editor and viewer (FAT16/32 HDs).

unrated

[added 1999-10-08, updated 2004-06-27]

Apparently allows viewing and editing of fixed disks only. While not especially option-rich and lacking user documentation (but see the online help page, below), PTS DiskEditor uniquely handles both FAT16 and FAT32. Includes Block copy and paste, undo, search for HEX/ASCII functions. "PTS DiskEditor can work without any operating system" on the fixed disk, because it is run from a DOS or Win9x boot diskette. While it does not run under WinNT/2000/XP, it can still repair MBRs created by those OSes. 32-bit program (with built-in PMODE/W extender), requires 80386+.

Author: PhysTechSoft, Russia (1998).

Note: The rights to this disk editor were acquired in 2001 by Acronis, which now publishes a commercial variant, Acronis Disk Editor (demo is available). The original PTS DiskEditor, listed here, was licensed with a free distribution clause.

1998-11-30: v1.04.

Download PTSDE104.ZIP (161K).

Starman's A Review of the PTS (PhysTechSoft) Disk Editor has detailed info and screenshots.

DE (DiskEditor) — Disk editor and viewer (FAT12/16).

unrated

[added 1998-06-23, updated 2004-08-07]

Untested. See a review of DE at ZDNET.

From the docs: "DiskEditor is a full function disk editor that supports graphics or non-graphics printing of all data displayed onto the screen, a DOS shell, Directory displaying, viewing, and editing, help, and mouse support." Also functions as an analysis tool: Locates stray / cross-linked clusters; can locate bad, reserved, invalid clusters; can compare both copies of FAT for errors; can test read all disk sectors. 50K EXE and requires 27K help file.

Requirements: 8088+; monochrome or better video; DOS 2.0+; Bytes@Sector, 4096 maximum; Sectors@Cluster, 128 maximum; FAT12 or FAT16.

Author: Jim Webster (1998). Suggested by Lars-Erik Sandberg.

1998-06-07: v3.0.

Download DE_30.ZIP (70K).

Jim Webster's Assembly Language Help and Programming Home Page.

Zap-It — Hex and disk editor (FAT16/32).

unrated

[added ?1997, updated 2004-06-27]

Untested.

Zap-It can function as either a file hex editor or a disk editor and has the ability to insert or delete bytes in hex mode. Works with FAT32 volumes. Charityware.

- Commands accessible from pulldown menus or keys.
- Drive/directory/file listing for easy navigation and file loading.
- Last files edited history list.
- Binary/Decimal/Hexadecimal conversion and calculation.
- Hex and Ascii editing windows.
- Non specific text search.
- Disk caching.
- Easy display configuration.
- Filtering.
- Cut/Copy/Paste/Insert functions.
- ASCII viewer.
- File Compare feature.

Author: Marten Egmond / Elmer Productions (2001).

2001-09-28: v5.13.

Download zapit513.zip (66K).

Also see: Secure File Wipers — WIPEUTIL (zapempty.com) — Shred.

Active@ KillDisk — Wipe an entire disk.

unrated

[added 2004-08-07, updated 2006-03-14]

• Detects and displays information about all partitions, hard disks and floppy drives currently connected to your computer.
• Wipes out all floppies and hard disk drives completely by secure overwriting data on physical level using [One Pass Zeros] data destruction method.
• Erases partitions, logical drives and even not used disk space.
• Erasing report is created and can be saved as a file.
• Supports IDE and SCSI drives.
• Supports larger than 8GB hard disks via using LBA mode to access drive's data.
• File systems (FAT, FAT32, NTFS, etc) on the drive do not matter, detected physical drive is erased using low-level disk access.
• Double confirmation excludes possibility of accidental erasing of data on a drive.
• Works on any system capable of boot from floppy in DOS mode.
• Utility is so compact that can be placed on bootable diskette and used from it. You do not even need to boot from the hard drive to destroy it.

32-bit program, requires 80386+, 4MB RAM, any DOS 6.0+, DOS/4GW extender (included).

Publisher: LSoft Technologies, Canada (2005).

2005-11-25: v3.1.2151

Get killdisk.zip (933K), accessories & manual (pdf) at the Active@ KillDisk page

WIPE (1) — Wipes fixed disks, up to 8GB.

unrated

[added 2001-09-23]

This small (3K) disk wiper will wipe entire disks (not just unused space). Useful if you are disposing of hard disks with sensitive data.

... nice because it does not CARE about the file system – it starts from the first sector and starts writing zeros. Granted it will only do HDs up to 8 gig because of the new Bios thing [no int13h extensions], and not everybody wants to totally zarch their partition unless they are getting rid of hard drives...

   Syntax: WIPE <FDISK#>
           WHERE <FDISK#>="0" TO 7 FOR FIXED DISK DRIVE 0
                                    OR FIXED DISK DRIVE 7.
           OR?     ="Display" HELP.

• WIPE writes the COMPLETE drive with 00h pattern, starting at Cylinder 0, Head 0, Sector 1 and ending with Max Cylinder, Max Head, and Max Sector.
• WIPE will display the drive parameters before prompting if you want to continue.
• WIPE will prompt you to make sure you want to WIPE the drive before doing it. You must answer with 'y' or 'Y' and press enter to continue, any other responce will cause WIPE to abort.
• WIPE will display a progress line with the current Cylinder, Head and Starting Sector that is being written.
• WIPE will display any non zero error code returned from the Fixed Disk function call.
• If you do not enter a parameter, WIPE will display help.

Author: Unknown. Suggested by Daniel Schmidt.

1996-05-02: v1.0c.

Download wipe10c.zip.

Get even more good stuff from Uwe Sieber's Utilities for DOS and Windows (in English) / Utilities für DOS und Windows (auf Deutsch).

WIPEM — Disk shredder overwrites unused hard disk space, Win swap files.

unrated

WIPEM is an assembler DOS program that protects the private data on your hard drives... Although there are several other programs...which perform the wiping of the unused space, all these leave the directory entries untouched and the files final cluster still contains data... Directories scanning, finding files FAT chains, unused cluster scanning are all done directly reading the sectors on disk. WIPEM uses different patterns when overwriting data on disks. If used repeatedly even advanced data recovery methods (like scanning the disk plates) won't give results.

This baby will wipe your Windows swap file too – a smart idea.

Limitations: not usable on FAT12 (floppies) or FAT32 disks.

Usage: WIPEM drive: [options]
/w - wipe (writes on disk - otherwise only simulates)
/e - only the erased space (free clusters)
/d - only directory entries
/f - only the files end (final clusters)
/p - hide .pgp files (mark delete)
/r - restore .pgp files (no other operation is performed)

Author: Emil Laurentiu, Romania (1997).

1997-07-21: v1.0. Cardware.

Download wipeem01.zip (11K).

WipeFree — Wipe over free disk space (DOS and Win32 versions).

unrated

[added 1999-07-10]

WipeFree for DOS creates files and writes to them until the drive is full. Each file can be up to 2GB and up to 1000 files can be created... WipeFree32 can handle this by creating a single file. WipeFree32 can overwrite the free areas twice. The parameter for this is /2.

Author: Uwe Sieber, Germany (1999).

Download wipefree.zip (44K).

Get even more good stuff from Uwe Sieber's Utilities for DOS and Windows (in English) / Utilities für DOS und Windows (auf Deutsch).

Also see CD Navigator, a disk cataloger.

Disc-at-Once (DAO) — Golden Hawk's CD recording utilities.

unrated

[added 1998-12-08, updated 2006-08-21]

"...A set of useful CD-R applications for MSDOS. They support every major CDROM recorder..." 16-bit DOS and 32-bit Windows console versions available (DOS version does not support IDE devices). The following freeware programs are included in the larger Disc-at-Once commercial distribution packages:

CD2CD.EXE		Copies a single-track data CD from any supported CDROM drive to a CD recorder.
CD2FILE.EXE and FILE2CD.EXE		CD2FILE copies a CD from any supported CDROM drive to a hard drive image file, which can then be written to the same or a different CD recorder using FILE2CD.
DISK2CD.EXE		Copies a SCSI harddrive block-by-block to a CD recorder.
CDTOOLS.EXE		Performs CDROM functions including "Disc Finalization", "Erase CD-RW Disc", "Table of Contents", etc.

Author: Golden Hawk Technology (2004-06). Suggested by Dev Teelucksingh.

Go to Disc-at-Once – DOS Programs for lots more info.

CD-BENCH — Benchmark program for CD-ROM drives.

unrated

[added 1999-04-17]

Evaluate the performance of your CD-ROM with CD-BENCH. Good docs, and includes options to defeat caching effects. From the docs: "Many common benchmarks report a...wrong result because they suppose that the reading speed is constant, so they read only at the beginning of the disc. CD-BENCH...is the only benchmark that reads the disc in six different points and displays six results, so you can see if and how the speed varies." Runs only in plain DOS mode (not Win9x).

-S  reports the size of the disc without performing test.
-D  change the delay preceding reading. default=500 (millisec)
-B  change the quantity of data read. default=50 (blocks)
-I  start test immediately (no initial spin-up).
-Q  decrease readings from 6 to 3

Note: Tested successfully on a generic internal 32X CD-ROM but failed to access a parallel port external drive. RLG.

Author: Pino Navato, Italy (1999).

1999-01-11: v2.1.

Download pn_cdb21.zip (14K).

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