What's new in Partition Saving 4.60
Apr 15, 2019
- Evolutions made are:
- Detect more devices on Linux version with taking into account all block devices less those known as CD/DVD drives,
- Add of detection of administrator's rights on Windows and Linux versions to display a warning message in case they are not granted (as devices will not be accessible). The "-noroot" option disables this check,
- Add capability to keep source file date when copying a file during backup or partition exploration,
- Display size in GB instead of MB as default.
- Remark:
- This version can restore files created with previous versions. Reverse is true also.
New in Partition Saving 4.50 (Jul 8, 2018)
- Evolutions made are:
- add of detection of hibernated Windows or Linux such as you get a warning is such a system is encountered. As the data were not flushed to disk and system will ignore any change done to disk when it is restarted, performing a backup or modifying the disk should be avoided in that case. A good way to ensure a system is not hibernated is to choose to restart it instead of shutting it down,
- update console handling on Windows to take new console mode in Windows 10 (console can be resized as on Linux with using "-tuix" option),
- add capability to reuse a raw file such as you could access several partitions in the file if it contains a partitionned disk,
- add capability to use "main_part=" and "ext_part=" options with raw files in options file in case raw file contains a partitionned disk,
- treat "heads_sectors=parttable" option in DOS version to use physical definition deduced from partitions table as in Linux and Windows versions such as backup files use the same physical definition. This avoids getting difference in backup file content depending on used OS,
- add "cylinders=" option in options file to force number of cylinders (useful only for the same reason than previous change),
- add "-termopt" command line option to give the flag used by Linux terminal to execute a command. It is "-e" as default to match flag used by xterm.
New in Partition Saving 4.40 (Dec 11, 2017)
- Evolutions made are:
- correction of a restriction introduced in V4.20 leading to unavailability to restore MBR and first sectors of a disk in Windows and Linux versions,
- add of treatment of blkid information when parsing /etc/fstab file to detect devices on Linux,
- add of option to not exit program in case of checksum error in backup file,
- add of full support for indexed directories in ext2 driver (previously they were used without index information). This has no influence on backup/restore process as this one does not need to enter in such detail in filesystem structure,
- improvment of memory management, mostly for DOS version with trying to avoid DPMI memory manager to exit program in case it cannot get enough memory,
- use of 1.2.11 zlib version.
New in Partition Saving 4.30 (Sep 17, 2017)
- Evolutions made are:
- support of different location for Windows boot configuration data file to adapt to fact they are located in another place when using UEFI BIOS,
- add of option to give the boot configuration data file location,
- support of additional kind of entries in boot configuration file (for recovery environment option),
- support of some of the new ext4 filesystem features (sparse super2, inline data, metadata checksum, checksum seed, multimount protection),
- add of capability to change boot partition,
- add of capability to update disk number in FAT and NTFS boot sectors,
- do no more try to continue reading a file as soon as a bad sector is found as the read will necesserally end in error. This does not change anything for backup as backup does not work at file level, it will just speed up copy for people using explore mode to retrieve files content on a damaged disk,
- avoid potential computation overflow when displaying progress bar in console user interface.
New in Partition Saving 4.20 (May 5, 2015)
- Evolutions made are:
- capability to explore a partition or backup file with console interface mode,
- capability to execute a script when exploring a partition or a backup file,
- capability to remove files and directories when exploring a partition,
- capability to resize terminal size in Linux and Windows cases when using the -tuix or -buix display mode,
- size units in options file have been modified from kb or Kb to kB and Mb to MB. That leads to the fact an options file created with this version cannot be read by previous versions (reserve is possible because this version allows reading old unit display).
- This version can restore files created with previous versions. Reverse is true also.
New in Partition Saving 4.10 (Jun 5, 2013)
- it is the first 64 bits version for Windows and Linux. There is no major difference with 32 bits version, less fact that 64 bits Windows version is not compressed (so binaries are bigger).
- use of 1.2.8 zlib version.
- add of "swapfile.sys" file into list of swap files to ignore (added by Windows 8).
- clear to 0 of begin of swap files when restoring backup done with ignoring swap files. In case Windows is in hibernation mode when the restore is done, this avoid incoherency because Windows restarts from its hibernation state and disk content was modified. This does not change anything on backup files: restoring a backup created with previous version will reset begin of swap files and restoring with a previous version a backup created with this version will not reset begin of swap files.
- a correction to avoid program to block in some cases in case of execution cancel during a backup/restore.
- some minor changes into interface as:
- pre-filling of file name and maximum size when several files are needed (as if automatic naming is used but with letting user capability to modify these values) as suggested by Barry Akin. In command line interface, pre-filled values appear between square brackets and hitting Enter key allows validating this pre-filled value.
- display of directory content when asking for filename in command line mode if enterred filename contains wildcards characters or is a directory name.
New in Partition Saving 4.00 (Mar 16, 2013)
- add of raw files treatment: some files could be considered as image of supports (as obtained through "dd") and be saved and restored. The corresponding options have been added.
- taking into account that disk can be not partitioned (as not partitioned USB key that are too big to be considered as floppy).
- change of Linux version to support terminal with UTF-8 display and add of the corresponding option.
- add of support of more support in Linux version: use of block devices:
- dev/ataraid, /dev/iseries, /dev/ccisss, /dev/mapper, /dev/md/md_d, dev/md/d, /dev/md_d, /dev/sx8, /dev/md, /dev/rd in addition to already supported ones. If /etc/auto.master or /etc/autofs/auto.master file exists, it is used to get a list of automatically mounted supports (with considering only simple mount, not network nor scripted ones). If dev/fuse file (automatic mount in user space) exists, all devices are displayed without them to appear in /etc/fstab.
- change of UTF-16 characters displaying: instead of being , it is . This does that if an option file uses a name with old format, it will no more be supported (such a coding can appear in filenames and in boot entry name).
- This does not change anything to backup files.
- change of "beep" option to allow defining delay between 2 beeps.
- change of "fix_first_sector" option to allow defining the first sector value.
- change of "force" option for it to allow testing all filesystem types on a partition even if they are not one coherent with partition type.
- add of a check box when filling options file comment to not store full path to created files such as options file can be used even if files are moved as long as Partition-Saving is launched from directory where backup files are.
- add of logging capability to store all error messages in a file. There is no real reason to use this in most cases as it will slow down copy and could generate a very big file in case of damaged disk.
- change of behaviour when "quit=yes" option is given in options file:
- previously in case of fatal error, user had to click on "Ok" to end; now program exits. If you want to keep previous behaviour, you have to use the "quit=nobadsector" option instead. Please note that on Linux and Windows versions you will still need to press "Enter" key else the terminal could be closed before you can read the message.
New in Partition Saving 3.71 (Feb 27, 2009)
- This version corrects a problem that disallows creating files when using DOS version within Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista (as to pre-create files on an NTFS partition). It adds also a workaround to the DOS network redirector that removes distant directory in case this one is empty.
New in Partition Saving 3.70 (Jan 21, 2009)
- availability to save partitions table and all sectors of an hard disk in Windows version (you need at least Windows XP).
- availability to load options file from interface with viewing it before. A comment can also be added to options file when it is created.
- take into account of file extended access rights on ext2/ext3 partitions to allow their opening into explorer (this did not disallow their saving/restoring).
- availability to force disk size detection with depending on partitions table content. This will only concern DOS version with using the "-tds" option (note: for less than 8 Go disk, this can lead to a difference of detection with previous versions).
- remove of some checks that could disallow detection of some USB disks (note: this can lead to changes in disk numbering if USB disk is found before other ones).
- some changes into user interface
New in Partition Saving 3.40 (Aug 8, 2007)
- Add of an option to update Windows Vista boot configuration. This option was tested only on Windows Vista RC1, but I do not expect there was something modified here into final version. This option is needed only if you move the Windows Vista or boot partition.
- For saving Windows Vista itself, there is no change since Windows XP (it is the same NTFS version). You must be aware to cleanly reboot it, not to let it into hibernation mode (default Vista shutdown mode). For this, you have to choose menu having detailed shutdown options (button like an arrow near the default button).
- Add of options into options file to be able to copy a partition with using it (see source_xxx and dest_xxx options)
- Take into account of some FreeDos incompatibilities in how to detect language and available drives