# HDDSCViewer

#

This manual is for HDDSCViewer version 1.0 12 February 2022

Home page: http://www.hddsuperclone.com/

A PDF version of this manual is available in the downloads section

Chapters:

Introduction

Installing

Usage

Understanding the Display

Reporting Bugs

Next: Installing, Previous: Top, Up: Top

## Introduction

HDDSCViewer is a Linux based graphical viewer for inspecting progress log files

created by HDDSuperClone. It is also capable of opening ddrescue log (map) files.

Next: Usage, Previous: Introduction, Up: Top

## Installing

HDDSCViewer is supplied as an executable, with separate ones for 32bit and 64bit. You CANNOT run the 32bit on a 64 bit system and vice versa (you may get an odd file not found error if you try).

HDDSCViewer now has DEB (Debian/Ubuntu) and RPM (RedHat/Fedora) installers available. If you have downloaded the appropriate installer then you should just be able to double click on it to start the installation process. This method should even work on many live CDs, but not all. If you are unable to use one of the installers, then you will need to follow the instructions below to install from the tar.gz file or to run without installing.

If you have downloaded the tar.gz file, then the easiest way to get started is to copy the tar.gz file to a flash drive, and then use simple copy and paste to put it in the Home folder that can be found on the desktop of the Linux install. When you open a terminal it should default to the same Home folder that is on the desktop.

To extract hddscviewer, open a terminal and use the following commands (replacing the -x.x-x.x.-xxx with proper version number and architecture):

gunzip hddscviewer-x.x-x.x.-xxx.tar.gz

tar xf hddscviewer-x.x-x.x.-xxx.tar

Then navigate to the proper directory:

cd hddscviewer-x.x-x.x.-xxx

The following method to install HDDSCViewer will not only work on a Linux installation, but you can use the same method when booting from a live CD. The only difference is that every time you use a live CD, you will need to perform these steps after each boot.

To install hddscviewer, use the following command:

sudo make install

The "make install" command needs to be run as root, which is why "sudo" is included in this example. Your sysem may use a different command, or you may already be root. If it is not ran as root, then you will likely get permission errors and the install will not be complete. Note that you can also uninstall it with the command "sudo make uninstall". There is now also an uninstaller script that can be ran by typing "sudo hddscviewer-uninstall.sh".

After installation use the following command to run it:

hddscviewer

To run it without installing, you must be in the same directory as hddscviewer. Note that some versions of Linux will not allow you to run a program from certain external devices (such as a FAT32 USB drive). Example to run it from the current directory:

./hddscviewer

You may need to change the permissions on the file so that you have the rights to run it. The following command should do that:

sudo chmod a+x hddscviewer

If you are booted from a live CD that does not allow installing with make (maybe make does not exist) and you are trying to run it from a USB drive and are getting a permission error, you can copy the executable to the home folder and run it from there. Note that if using a live CD the home folder exists in ram and will be cleared on a reboot. The following example assumes you are in the folder on the USB drive that contains hddscviewer. The first command copies it to the home folder, the second command gives permission to execute, and the third command runs it:

sudo cp hddscviewer /home

sudo chmod a+x /home/hddscviewer

sudo /home/hddscviewer

Next: Understanding-the-Display, Previous: Installing, Up: Top

## Usage

The format for running HDDSCViewer is:

hddscviewer [options]

HDDSCViewer supports the following options:

‘-h’

‘--help’

Print an informative help message describing the options and exit.

‘-v’

‘--version’

Print the version number and exit.

Language Selection

When HDDSCViewer is first started in GUI mode, there will be a box with two buttons. The top button is to Continue to open HDDSCViewer, the bottom button is to change the language. When you click on Change Language, a file menu will open to a location where the language files are located. Choose the one that matches your desired language and then click Open. You should see a popup message that the language was changed successfully, click OK and then Continue.

The language files are created using Google Translate. Because of this, there will possibly, if not likely, be some translation issues. However, I believe that it should be good enough to be able to operate the program.

Update: I am now adding additional translation versions of language files that have been provided by others. They will have a dash “-” after the language name, and either a number or some other identifying method, depending on information provided by the author. If for some reason one of these additional language files does not work, it would likely be my fault for not getting it updated to match any updates I make in the program.

If you wish to submit a language translation pack, it must be in the format that HDDSCViewer can open. And hopefully you are willing to help with updates as changes and additions to the program are made.

The main window of HDDSCViewer has the following menu items at the top:

File-->Open – This opens a project log file, or optionally a ddrescue map/log file.

File-->Domain – This opens a domain log, which can be in the format of HDDSuperClone or ddrescue.

File-->Domain from DMDE bytes file – This imports a DMDE bytes file as a domain. The format must be the same as used with HDDSuperClone.

File-->Quit – This closes and exits the program.

Options-→Left panel resolution – This allows changing the resolution of the left panel.

Options-→Main panel resolution – This allows changing the resolution of the main panel. This can be useful when trying to analyze a pattern.

Options-→Main grid size – This allows changing the overall number of blocks that represent the log file. A larger number allows greater detail to be seen. This can be useful when trying to analyze a pattern.

Options-→Auto update – This is how often the log file will be reloaded and the display updated to reflect any changes, if any. You can use this to keep the program updating the display as the recovery progresses.

Options-→Highlight good data – This will turn on a small green dot in the middle of any block that is not finished, to show if there was any good data read within the block. This can be useful for detecting if a head is totally dead, or just weak and still reading some data.

Options-→Show bad head – This only works if the “Mark bad head” option was used in HDDSuperClone for the recovery. It will put a small purple dot in the middle of any block that was determined to be part of a bad head or bad area.

Options-→Show high time – This will turn on a small white dot in the middle of any block that has a read time exceeding the number of seconds selected. This can be useful for finding slow reading areas, or getting an understanding if there is a slow reading firmware issue.

Options-→Show domain – This turn on a small yellow dot in the middle of any block that is in the domain, if a domain file is loaded.

Next: Reporting-Bugs, Previous: Usage, Up: Top

## Understanding the Display

The left panel is an overall view of the whole recovery. The main panel is a scroll-able window that shows the part of the recovery in the window. The block color descriptions for both panels are in the top panel. The log and domain file names are listed at the top of the display.

To be able to see a pattern such as a bad head, you can adjust both the main panel resolution and main panel size, along with altering the width of the display window. Changing the width by dragging the edge of the window can help make patterns line up. If you can’t get the pattern to line up by changing the width, then change one of the other settings and try again.

When clicking on a block in the main panel, the information about that block will be displayed in the area left of the color descriptions. The first line is the range of the block in hex, with the range in decimal in parenthesis. The next lines contain the status counts for the block. The last lines are the log lines that represent the block.

Previous: Understanding-the-Display, Up: Top

## Reporting Bugs

It is always possible that there are programming errors in this software. It is also possible that there are errors and omissions in this documentation. If you report them, they will get fixed. If you don’t report them, they will just stay the way they are and will not get fixed.

Report bugs to (sdcomputingservice@gmail.com)

Please include the version number of hddscviewer. You can find the version by running hddscviewer with the --version option.