Can it write to the specific partition?

[sskras]

To me it looks like the tool cannot restore content of a specific partition:

If that's true, please take this a feature request :)

[raspopov]

Could you kindly clarify which scenario of interaction with the program requires the selection of a specific disc partition?

[sskras]

I wanted to test several FSDs (file systems drivers), like ext2fsd, rfsd. They come with no tool to create a specific file system. So I:

• create them on Linux
• image them to the file
• transfer the images to my Windows machine
• try writing them into the test partition I have made

I guess this fragment of the article I discovered might help if you go at implementing this feature:
The Perils of Writing Disk Images on Windows

[raspopov]

try writing them into the test partition I have made

But this would require editing the partition table, which is beyond the capabilities of this program... 🤔

[sskras]

Sure, I just described my workaround :)

And the linked text tells how to achieve that using the existing partition:

• The sectors to be written to fall within a mounted volume, but you have explicitly locked or dismounted the volume by using FSCTL_LOCK_VOLUME or FSCTL_DISMOUNT_VOLUME.
• The sectors to be written to fall within a volume that has no mounted file system other than RAW.

I guess locking the volume would be a quickest way. Dismounting the volume would be the safest one.

[sskras]

OK, I see your code already issues FSCTL_LOCK_VOLUME:

VisualDiskImager/VisualDiskImager/DeviceVolume.cpp

Lines 60 to 80 in 185b571

	bool CDeviceVolume::Lock()
	{
	if ( Open() )
	{
	if ( ! m_bLocked )
	{
	Log( LOG_ACTION, IDS_VOLUME_LOCK, (LPCTSTR)Name );
	DWORD returned;
	if ( ! DeviceIoControl( m_h, FSCTL_LOCK_VOLUME, nullptr, 0, nullptr, 0, &returned, nullptr ) )
	{
	Log( LOG_WARNING, IDS_VOLUME_LOCK_ERROR, (LPCTSTR)GetErrorString( GetLastError() ) );
	return false;
	}
	m_bLocked = true;
	}
	return true;
	}
	return false;
	}

VisualDiskImager/VisualDiskImager/DeviceWrite.cpp

Lines 85 to 89 in 185b571

	// Lock device volumes
	for ( const auto& volume : device.Volumes )
	{
	volume->Lock();
	}

[raspopov]

What I meant was that the partition table is physically in one place on the disk, and the partition data is a completely different place on the disk. It is not possible to write both as a simple image.

[sskras]

I agree, these are different things.

But my original message / feature request is about replacing data in an existing partition only (ie. to keep the partition table intact).

For this, only one volume would need locking / dismounting (and only in case it's not raw). Plus, starting offset on the media during the write operation would need to change from 0 to the partition's starting block, I suppose.

[raspopov]

Have a look at a new release?