Need good disk dump utility

[Kevin Handy]

Scott Stevens wrote:

>On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 16:11:11 -0700 (PDT)
>Vintage Computer Festival <vcf at siconic.com> wrote:
>
>  
>
>>I'm currently using Anadisk to dump disks into image files.  The
>>problem is, Anadisk, like 22disk, is retarded.  If it hits an error it
>>skips the sector but does not put a blank sector in the image file. 
>>You have the option of placing a sector header before each sector, but
>>for manipulating disk images, this is a piss poor way to mark missing
>>sectors.  Anadisk also has the annoying habit of ignoring the start
>>and finish cylinders and merrily proceeds to read the entire disk,
>>relegating the need to ask you what cylinders you want dumped
>>superfluous.
>>
>>Is there anything in Linux that will dump a disk image and put blank
>>space where bad sectors are?  It's not certain if dd does this.
>>
>>I'm sick of the crap programming of others.  Must I write *EVERYTHING*
>>myself?
>>
>>    
>>
>
>Well, the cool thing about the free Unices (and Linux) is that you can
>dig into the source code for dd and find out.  And if it doesn't put
>blank space where errors occur, you can modify it to do so.  Perhaps
>with a command-line switch option, if one doesn't already exist.
>
>  
>
>>I'm sick of the crap programming of others.  Must I write *EVERYTHING*
>>myself?
>>    
>>
>
>Naw, just the bit that will scratch your particular itch.  And if you
>make changes to dd and submit your changes back, nobody else will have
>to rewrite it either.
>
>  
>
Another one to look at is dmklib
http://dmklib.brouhaha.com/

That one worked for me to read several Kaypro disks under Linux.
I think it works the way you expect for bad sectors.