Unable to get Diskpatch to function

[tweakjr]

Hi,  I recently purchased a license for Diskpatch in order to clone a 300 GB, 2 physical drive RAID 0 array.  One of the hard drives is reporting a SMART failure.  I'm experiencing endless read errors, but am able to still view the folders in windows explorer.  I would like to salvage whatever data I can.

When I run diskpatch from a floppy it freezes on the screen right after choosing either DMA option.  The screen that follows has just a flashing cursor in the top left next to where it reads "Diskpatch."  I suspect a bad floppy so I tried from a CD as well.  When using the CD I am able to get to the point where I select "start diskpatch."  Again it freezes when doing the initial startup tests.  If I choose the option to skip both tests I can get to the option screen that allows me to select a disk volume to work with.  Again it freezes when I choose either disk 0 or disk 1.

Not sure what approach to take at this point.
Scott

[Tom]

It could be a FreeDOS incompatibility issue. Try the "alternate" setup, it has windows 98 DOS files included instead of Freedos. Obviously it is not entirely legal for us to distribute this, but if you own a valid Windows XP license it's okay to use.
I've mailed you the link in a private message, check your forum mailbox.
Uninstall the current version of DiskPatch before installing the alternate version.
If asked, make sure you do NOT use the DMA driver.

[tweakjr]

I have gotten a bit further since my original post.  Spent a couple hours trying different things to get it to go.  Swapped out floppy drives, tried the USB drive method, manually created a startup disk in windows XP, then copied the dp.exe file to it.  Tried with or without DMA driver.  I unplugged all of the other peripherals such as sound card, CD ROM drives, etc.  I even pulled power from one of the RAID 0 arrays.  Lastly tried the "alternate" setup, every time is the same result:

Start diskpatch normally, during the startup checks, I get green marks by the first two (128Gb barrier and MBR validity.)  Other than that it just stalls, no green check mark next to Disk overlay.  If I choose to skip the general checks, everything seems to function normal, I can select the disk to work with, etc etc.  At that point I tried 3 times to initiate the Clone process.  It begins the process by showing the progress info (Current sector - 0, blocks skipped - 0, write errors - 0, time remaining -) again it just hangs there doing nothing.  Pressing escape has no effect either.

I really would like to use this software for the cloning operation, as it seems to address the very situation I am in with this HDD on the fritz.

Incidentally the target array is identical to the source array.  All 4 hard drives in both arrays are the exact same western digital models.

In regard to the windows 98 startup files, I do own both windows 98 and XP.

My motherboard is an ASUS P5N32SLI SE Deluxe, using nVidia nForce4 chipset.  The RAID 0 arrays are connected to the Nvidia SATA ports.

Any more assistance is appreciated.
Scott

[Joep]

Hello,

Could you please:

- zip up and email us the logfiles from the DPFILES folder
- Create a disk health report (in DP startup menu > options > disk health report) and email us that as well?

It begins the process by showing the progress info (Current sector - 0, blocks skipped - 0, write errors - 0, time remaining -) again it just hangs there doing nothing.  Pressing escape has no effect either.

Disk access in DiskPatch relies on the BIOS. At the point where DiskPatch 'requests' a sector to be read, full control lies with the BIOS. As long as the BIOS does not return control DiskPatch will be unable to handle any requests (like the the ESC key being pressed). You can do nothing but wait untill the BIOS returns control. Handling a read error takes time, can be upto several seconds for a single sector. Disks tend to read ahead, and if multiple bad sectors in this read ahead operation are encountered it may take a long time for the disk to 'recover' from those errors. DiskPatch 'stalling' and becoming unresponsive does not mean nothing is happening and that DiskPatch is hanging. Most of the times, eventually, control will be returned to DiskPatch.

Still, delays may make using DiskPatch too unpractical.

Seen the fact that the Windows explorer still shows you the disk's content it appears the Windows disk drivers are handling this particular disk better (than the system BIOS). So you may want to try salvaging data from the disk using a Windows tool like iRecover.

I'd then recommend you first create a disk image using iRecover (In the physical device list, right click the disk and select create image file). You may want to tweak the runtime control settings. For bad disks, these are recommended settings:

- "Timeout" - set to 200 ms unless doing RAID recovery. For a RAID recovery, set to 500.
- "Retry attempts" - set to 1 unless the analysis is unacceptably slow. To increase speed, set to 0.
- "Avoid repeated retries" - enable.
- "Skip factor" - set to 32, unless the analysis is unacceptably slow. To increase speed, gradually increase "Skip factor" until satisfactory speed is achieved.
- "Force bus reset" should be disabled in most applications, even on a disk with a bad sectors.

[tweakjr]

Well I tried to make a disc image using iRecover, unfortunately that also did not work.  Before it could finish the job I would get the BSOD, stating IRQ not less or equal(if memory serves me correctly,) for NVATA.sys

My last resort was to manually copy each individul file manually in Windows explorer.  I was able to salvage most.  It seemed that any "large" files, anything over 200MB would fail before completion.  Most all of my home video-camera files were 8GB or more, so all those were lost.

Thanks anyway for trying to help.

Tweakjr

[Tom]

Ok, thanks for the feedback.