Disk editor
Encyclopedia
A disk editor is a computer program
Computer program
A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...

 that allows its user to read, edit, and write raw data (at character
ASCII
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...

 or hexadecimal
Hexadecimal
In mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal is a positional numeral system with a radix, or base, of 16. It uses sixteen distinct symbols, most often the symbols 0–9 to represent values zero to nine, and A, B, C, D, E, F to represent values ten to fifteen...

, byte-levels
Byte
The byte is a unit of digital information in computing and telecommunications that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, a byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the basic addressable element in many computer...

) on disk drives (e.g., hard disk
Hard disk
A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...

s, USB flash disks or removable media
Removable media
In computer storage, removable media refers to storage media which is designed to be removed from the computer without powering the computer off.Some types of removable media are designed to be read by removable readers and drives...

 such as a floppy disk
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...

s); as such, they are sometimes called sector editors, since the read/write routines built into the electronics of most disk drives require to read/write data in chunks of sector
Disk sector
In computer disk storage, a sector is a subdivision of a track on a magnetic disk or optical disc. Each sector stores a fixed amount of user data. Traditional formatting of these storage media provides space for 512 bytes or 2048 bytes of user-accessible data per sector...

s (usually 512 bytes). Many disk editors can also be used to edit the contents of a running computer's memory
Computer memory
In computing, memory refers to the physical devices used to store programs or data on a temporary or permanent basis for use in a computer or other digital electronic device. The term primary memory is used for the information in physical systems which are fast In computing, memory refers to the...

 or a disk image
Disk image
A disk image is a single file or storage device containing the complete contents and structure representing a data storage medium or device, such as a hard drive, tape drive, floppy disk, CD/DVD/BD, or USB flash drive, although an image of an optical disc may be referred to as an optical disc image...

.

Unlike hex editors, which are used to edit files
Computer file
A computer file is a block of arbitrary information, or resource for storing information, which is available to a computer program and is usually based on some kind of durable storage. A file is durable in the sense that it remains available for programs to use after the current program has finished...

, a disk editor allows access to the underlying disk structures, such as the MBR
Master boot record
A master boot record is a type of boot sector popularized by the IBM Personal Computer. It consists of a sequence of 512 bytes located at the first sector of a data storage device such as a hard disk...

, volume boot records, file system
File system
A file system is a means to organize data expected to be retained after a program terminates by providing procedures to store, retrieve and update data, as well as manage the available space on the device which contain it. A file system organizes data in an efficient manner and is tuned to the...

, and directories
Directory (file systems)
In computing, a folder, directory, catalog, or drawer, is a virtual container originally derived from an earlier Object-oriented programming concept by the same name within a digital file system, in which groups of computer files and other folders can be kept and organized.A typical file system may...

. Programmers can use disk editors to understand these structures and test whether their implementation (e.g. of a file system) works correctly. Sometimes these structures are edited in order to provide examples for teaching data recovery and forensics, or in an attempt to hide data to achieve privacy or hide data from casual examiners. However, modifying such data structures gives only a weak level of protection and data encryption is the preferred method to achieve privacy.

Some disk editors include special functions which enable more comfortable ways to edit and fix file systems or other disk specific data structures. Furthermore some include simple file browsers that can present the disk contents for partially corrupted file systems or file systems unknown to the operating system. These features can be used for example for file recovery.

History

Disk editors for home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...

s 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.

All disk editors strive to be better than DEBUG contained in all DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...

 versions. DEBUG can load, edit, and write one or more sectors from a floppy
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...

 or hard disk based on the BIOS
BIOS
In IBM PC compatible computers, the basic input/output system , also known as the System BIOS or ROM BIOS , is a de facto standard defining a firmware interface....

. This permits simple disk editing tasks such as saving and restoring the master boot record
Master boot record
A master boot record is a type of boot sector popularized by the IBM Personal Computer. It consists of a sequence of 512 bytes located at the first sector of a data storage device such as a hard disk...

 and other critical sectors, or even changing the active (= boot) partition in the MBR. In an NTVDM
Virtual DOS machine
Virtual DOS machine is Microsoft's technology that allows running legacy DOS and 16-bit Windows programs on Intel 80386 or higher computers when there is already another operating system running and controlling the hardware.-Overview:...

 under Windows NT
Windows NT
Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was a powerful high-level-language-based, processor-independent, multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix. It was intended to complement...

 DEBUG cannot access the physical drive with the MBR
Master boot record
A master boot record is a type of boot sector popularized by the IBM Personal Computer. It consists of a sequence of 512 bytes located at the first sector of a data storage device such as a hard disk...

 of the operating system and is in essence useless as disk editor
Disk editor
A disk editor is a computer program that allows its user to read, edit, and write raw data on disk drives ; as such, they are sometimes called sector editors, since the read/write routines built into the electronics of most disk drives require to read/write data in...

 for the system drive. The Resource Kit
Resource Kit
Resource Kit is a term used by Microsoft for a set of software resources and documentation released for their software products, but which is not part of that product...

 and the support tools for some Windows NT versions contain DSKPROBE as a very simple disk editor
Disk editor
A disk editor is a computer program that allows its user to read, edit, and write raw data on disk drives ; as such, they are sometimes called sector editors, since the read/write routines built into the electronics of most disk drives require to read/write data in...

 supporting the use and modification of the partition table in the MBR and related tasks.

Free Software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

 

  • HxD
    HxD
    HxD is a hex editor and disk editor developed by Maël Hörz for Windows. It can open files larger than 4 GiB and open and edit the raw contents of disk drives, as well as display and edit the memory used by running processes...

     - fast and intuitive hex editor (including disk editor and RAM editor) for Win9x/NT and up.
  • wxHexEditor - designed for huge files/disks. Tested up to 1 PetaByte drives. It's Open source
    Open source
    The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

     and Cross-platform
    Cross-platform
    In computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...

    .
  • Roadkil's Sector Editor - A lightweight sector editor which can also save a specified number of sectors to a file (all functions tested good under Windows XP Pro).
  • ICY Hexplorer - 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)
  • iBored - cross-platform block oriented disk and file editor with templates system and remote network disk access. Knows several common disk structures such as MBR, GUID partitions, Apple Partition Maps, FAT16, FAT32, UDF, ISO 9660, and a bit of HFS, ext2 and NTFS.

Proprietary Software
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...

 

  • HHD Software Hex Editor Neo - Fast and reliable hex editor (including disk editor, process editor and RAM editor) for Windows 2000 and up.
  • Hexprobe Hex Editor - A professional hex editor for Microsoft Windows
    Microsoft Windows
    Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

     capable of editing and searching in hard-disk and logical-drives.
  • WinHex - forensic, file recovery, disk cloning, full disk, image and memory editor (extra features when editing FAT
    File Allocation Table
    File Allocation Table is a computer file system architecture now widely used on many computer systems and most memory cards, such as those used with digital cameras. FAT file systems are commonly found on floppy disks, flash memory cards, digital cameras, and many other portable devices because of...

    , NTFS
    NTFS
    NTFS is the standard file system of Windows NT, including its later versions Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7....

    , CDFS
    ISO 9660
    ISO 9660, also referred to as CDFS by some hardware and software providers, is a file system standard published by the International Organization for Standardization for optical disc media....

     and Linux file systems); runs under Windows NT and higher (older versions can be used under Win9x).
  • T-Software Technologies System Console - 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.
  • Runtime Software Disk Explorer FAT/NTFS - tool that allows for copying and pasting at the byte-level in addition to full sectors. Companion to the GetDataBack and Drive Image XML tools.
  • R-Tools R-Studio - forensic tool that competes with WinHex. The suite has the editor in addition to a powerful selection of tools. There are multiple 'levels' of features depending on price.
  • DMDE - multifunctional disk editor and data recovery software for FAT, NTFS. Disk editor is freeware for non-commercial use.

Linux

  • wxHexEditor - designed for huge files/disks. Tested up to 1 PetaByte drives. It's Open source
    Open source
    The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

     and Cross-platform
    Cross-platform
    In computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...

    .
  • hexedit shows a file both in ASCII and in hexadecimal. The file can be a block device file as it reads portions of it on demand. You can modify the file, search through it and more.
  • shed (simple hex editor)
  • Linux disk editor (for ext2
    Ext2
    The ext2 or second extended filesystem is a file system for the Linux kernel. It was initially designed by Rémy Card as a replacement for the extended file system ....

     file system).
  • debugfs (debugger and editor for ext2
    Ext2
    The ext2 or second extended filesystem is a file system for the Linux kernel. It was initially designed by Rémy Card as a replacement for the extended file system ....

    )
  • iBored - (Freeware
    Freeware
    Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...

    ) cross-platform block oriented disk and file editor with templates system and remote network disk access. Knows several common disk structures such as MBR, GUID partitions, Apple Partition Maps, FAT16, FAT32, UDF, ISO 9660, and a bit of HFS, ext2 and NTFS.

Mac OS X

  • iBored - (Freeware
    Freeware
    Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...

    ) cross-platform block oriented disk and file editor with templates system and remote network disk access. Knows several common disk structures such as MBR, GUID partitions, Apple Partition Maps, FAT16, FAT32, UDF, ISO 9660, and a bit of HFS, ext2 and NTFS.
  • wxHexEditor - designed for huge files/disks. Tested up to 1 PetaByte drives. It's Open source
    Open source
    The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

     and Cross-platform
    Cross-platform
    In computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...

    .

MS-DOS

  • Norton Utilities
    Norton Utilities
    Norton Utilities is a utility software suite designed to help analyze, configure, optimize and maintain the computer. The current version 15 of Norton Utilities Premier Edition for Windows XP/Vista/7 was released December 27, 2010....

     DISKEDIT (for FAT under DOS
    DOS
    DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...

    ); still packaged with many commercial Norton products for Windows.
  • Diskman disk editor Old but powerful disk / sector editor for DOS. Freeware.
  • WDe disk editor Very simple but well designed; ASM
    Assembly language
    An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...

     source code included.

Atari ST

  • Diskus by Uwe Seimet is a powerful graphical Disk Editor for Atari ST
    Atari ST
    The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...

     (FAT filesystem)

Commodore 64

  • Epyx FastLoad
    Epyx FastLoad
    The Epyx FastLoad is a floppy disk fast loader cartridge made by American software company Epyx in 1984 for the Commodore 64 home computer. It was programmed by Epyx employee Scott Nelson, who later designed the Epyx Vorpal fastloading system for the company's games.Epyx FastLoad allowed programs...

     for the Commodore 64
    Commodore 64
    The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...

     computer and 1541
    Commodore 1541
    The Commodore 1541 , made by Commodore International, was the best-known floppy disk drive for the Commodore 64 home computer. The 1541 was a single-sided 170 kilobyte drive for 5¼" disks...

     disk drive
  • The Final Cartridge
    The Final Cartridge III
    The Final Cartridge III was a popular extension cartridge which was created for the Commodore 64 and Commodore 128, produced by Riska B.V. Home & Personal Computers...

     (C64/1541)
  • Action Replay (C64/1541)
  • Locksmith II (disk) for the Commodore 64
    Commodore 64
    The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...

     computer and 1541
    Commodore 1541
    The Commodore 1541 , made by Commodore International, was the best-known floppy disk drive for the Commodore 64 home computer. The 1541 was a single-sided 170 kilobyte drive for 5¼" disks...

     disk drive

Apple II

  • Copy II Plus (disk) originally for the Apple II
    Apple II
    The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...

     computer and Disk II or compatible 5.25-inch drives using the Apple DOS 3.3 and 3.2 filesystems. The latest versions added support for 3.5-inch drives and ProDOS formatted 5.25-inch disks. With ProDOS support, came support for block devices recognizable by ProDOS, such as the ROM or RAM drives on the Apple IIGS.

See also

  • dd (Unix)
    Dd (Unix)
    In computing, dd is a common Unix program whose primary purpose is the low-level copying and conversion of raw data. According to the manual page for Version 7 Unix, it will "convert and copy a file". It is used to copy a specified number of bytes or blocks, performing on-the-fly byte order...

     allows read and write access on disks and other devices
  • Hex editor
    Hex editor
    A hex editor is a type of computer program that allows a user to manipulate the fundamental binary data that makes up computer files. Note that computer files can be very small to very large...

  • Partition editor
    Partition editor
    A partition editor is a kind of utility software designed to view, create, alter and delete disk partitions on a computer storage device, most commonly a hard disk, but often a USB flash drive or other storage medium.A partition is a section or segment of the storage space on a storage device...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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