Disk editor

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A disk editor is a computer program that allows its user to read, edit, and write raw data (at character or hexadecimal, byte-levels) on disk drives (e.g., a hard disk, USB flash drive or the removable media of a floppy disk drive); as such, they are sometimes called sector editors, since the read/write routines built into the electronics of most disk drives do not allow for any less than one full sector of data (usually 512 bytes) to be transferred at a time. Many disk editors can also be used to edit the contents of a running computer's memory or a disk image.

Unlike Hex editors, which are used to edit files, a disk editor allows access to the underlying disk structures, such as the MBR, volume boot records, file system, and directories. They are sometimes used to edit these structures in order to provide examples for teaching data forensics and recovery, or in an attempt to hide data from casual examiners.

Some disk editors have features which go beyond the simple task of editing the bytes of a sector and writing it back to a disk. For example, WinHex can display key information about many different file systems (including the 2048 or 2352-byte sectors of Compact Discs) which allows a user to quickly identify drive problems and even retrieve deleted files.

[edit] History

Disk editors for home computers of the 1980s were often included as part of utility software packages on floppies or cartridges. The latter had the advantage of being instantly available at power-on and after resets, instead of having to be (re)loaded on the same disk drive that later would hold the floppy to be edited (the majority of home computer users possessed only one floppy disk drive at that time). Having the disk editor on cartridge also helped the user avoid editing/damaging the disk editor application disk by mistake.

[edit] See also

[edit] List of some disk editors (or products containing them)

Windows

  • HxD - (Freeware) fast and intuitive hex editor (including disk editor and RAM editor) for Win9x/NT and up.
  • Roadkil's Sector Editor - (Freeware) A lightweight sector editor which can also save a specified number of sectors to a file (all functions tested good under Windows XP Pro).
  • DiskEdit - (Freeware) Microsoft's internal Disk Editor (for low level access and FAT/NTFS file systems)
  • HHD Software Hex Editor Neo - (Commercial) Fast and reliable hex editor (including disk editor, process editor and RAM editor) for Windows 2000 and up.
  • Hexprobe Hex Editor - (Commercial) A professional hex editor for Microsoft Windows capable of editing and searching in hard-disk and logical-drives.
  • WinHex - (Commercial) forensic, file recovery, disk cloning, full disk, image and memory editor (extra features when editing FAT, NTFS, CDFS and Linux file systems); runs under Windows NT and higher (older versions can be used under Win9x).
  • T-Software Technologies System Console - (Commercial) Multifunctional system software. Allows to process any part of hard drive, floppy drive, CD/DVD etc, including hidden partitions and unpartitioned space; runs under Windows NT and higher.
  • ICY Hexplorer - (Freeware) Hexplorer doesn't format file content, but it displays it as it is, that is as binary data, allowing you to edit it hexadecimally or like text editor does, so it gives you low level access to each kind of file, providing many tools to operate on data. (this description may need cleanup)

Linux

DOS

  • Norton Utilities DISKEDIT (for FAT under DOS); still packaged with many commercial Norton products for Windows.
  • WDe disk editor Very simple but well designed; ASM source code included.
  • DiskEditor (Open Source Disk Editor hosted on sourceforge.net for DOS).

Commodore