DiskRead

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A program that allows you to read raw chunks of a disk or a file.
DiskRead aims to replace xxd or hexdump present on Linux, but for Windows. Furthermore, the low-level WinAPI functions enable DiskRead to access any file, including boot sectors and disks, both for reading and writing. By operating at the sector level, it allows developers and system administrators to inspect raw data structures, perform low-level backups, and analyze filesystem corruption directly from the command line without interference from the operating system's standard file locks.

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Usage

Switches

• -b, --bytes <bytecount>
  Change the number of bytes per line displayed
• -e, --export <file>
  Export to a file
• -h, --hideoffset
  Hide the offset display
• -o, --offset <offset>
  Set a custom starting offset for the file
• -s, --size <read size>
  Read a specific amount of bytes from the file. 512 bytes are read by default
• -u, --uppercase
  Display hexadecimal values in uppercase
• -x, --hexadecimal
  Only display the hexadecimal representation
• -y, --yes
  Do not prompt for confirmation when exporting to a device file

Example usages

• diskread \\.\PhysicalDrive0 -s 512 -o 0 -e bootsect.bak
  Reads the first 512 bytes from physical drive 0 and writes them to bootsect.bak (a boot sector backup). The boot sector can be restored if needed using diskread bootsect.bak -s 512 -o 0 -e \\.\PhysicalDrive0.
• diskread file.txt -s 40 -o 10 -h
  Prints 40 bytes from file.txt, starting to read at the 10th byte without displaying the offset.
• diskread image.png -x -u -b 12
  Prints only 512 bytes of image.png in uppercase hexadecimal, displaying 12 bytes per line.

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Why use DiskRead?

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Compatibility

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Article

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Contributing