Ability to switch between disk mode and file mode

Wishlists for new functionality and features.
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tom

Ability to switch between disk mode and file mode

Post by tom »

Hi,

First off I really like HxD, it is a great hex editor! One thing that would make it even more useful would be to be able to switch between disk mode and file mode at will.

What I mean is, being able to open a file, and then being able to hit a switch or a button or something and have it be in physical disk access mode at that point on the disk. So if you opened file.bin or something, and then hit the switch to disk access mode button, you could scroll up and there would be the sectors before that file, or you could scroll to the end of the file and keep going and see the ram slack/file slack/etc...

Basically, if you're in some file and you're at physical sector offset 3000000, then hitting the switch would put you in disk access mode at that same sector.

If this seems difficult, then just displaying what physical sector you're at when you're in a file in a status bar on the bottom would be VERY helpful. That way I could open the file, see what physical sector I'm at, then open the raw disk and jump to that sector.

Thanks!
Maël
Site Admin
Posts: 1455
Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Re: Ability to switch between disk mode and file mode

Post by Maël »

Hi tom,
One thing that would make it even more useful would be to be able to switch between disk mode and file mode at will.
So you want to open the physical hard disk that contains the file and go to the sector corresponding to the current file offset.
This would require to know the filesystem of that disk such that the corresponding sector could be located. Also keep in mind that if the file is fragmented a sector of the file may be followed by another totally unrelated sector that does not belong to the file, i.e. the file contents is not necessarily stored in a contiguous way.
If this seems difficult, then just displaying what physical sector you're at when you're in a file in a status bar on the bottom would be VERY helpful. That way I could open the file, see what physical sector I'm at, then open the raw disk and jump to that sector.
Such a feature is certainly desirable, but it requires to understand several different types of file systems before it is possible to implement that feature, which isn't trivial. The switching itself is not difficult.
Forgotten_One
Posts: 2
Joined: 02 Jun 2009 01:13

Show sectors

Post by Forgotten_One »

Any chance that you could add an option to show sectors when regularly viewing a file?
Maël
Site Admin
Posts: 1455
Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Re: Show sectors

Post by Maël »

Just open it as disk image. See Extras menu.
Forgotten_One
Posts: 2
Joined: 02 Jun 2009 01:13

Re: Show sectors

Post by Forgotten_One »

I mean like show where each file sector is on the hard drive itself. So if i opened up my hard drive i could jump to where the files sectors are?
Maël
Site Admin
Posts: 1455
Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Re: Show sectors

Post by Maël »

Ok, then that's the same as http://forum.mh-nexus.de/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=250.
Merged topics.
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