[Bug-ddrescue] Fwd: GNU ddrescue data recovery tool - more suggestions 02

[wilsonstreet]

 Hi Antonio,

I went through this previous email and made adjustments to
make it clearer.

The text table at the end, was a mess because the e,ail
system wrapped the text.
So I made it narrower to make it clearer.
However ddrescue could use a display of greater width.

Yours
Al
 
----- Message Forwarded on Sat 20/10/2012 -----
From: wilsonstreet <address@hidden>
To: address@hidden
Subject: GNU ddrescue data recovery tool - more suggestions
02
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:49:01 +1300
ref;
http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html

Hello,

Some more suggestions for improvement;

1) ddrescue could include a display of the "Estimated time
to complete task (Min/Expected?Max)".

i) If the source size is not detected, then the user could
be asked to supply a rough estimate of the size.
This lets the user get an idea of when they need to get back
to the operation to see how it is going.

ii) ddrescue could include a make a beep(s), or play a sound
file on error detection,
and on completion. This means user does not need to keep a
"visual" on progress.

iii) ddrescue could possibly include an advanced option to
send email or txt message of
progress reports.

iv) use the PC system clock to show values for expected
times in local time.
(Earliest/Expected/Latest)



2) Verbose report - option to have a "full options report"
which might include any of the following features;

i) list all the options (in task related settings groups,
with groups as underlined titles).

ii) Highlight the options set by user in one color.

iii) List all other settings even if not used = No (or N/A
or Not Set)

iv) List options or settings which are default/automatically
detected/manually over-ridden



3) For parameters that the program changes the values of
during operation, then the user could choose to be informed
of these changes. (e.g split size [started at][self adjusted
to]).

4) Methods of "Refining the scan process"
4i) program could report suggested Options settings for the
next
manual/user attempt to extract the remaining (more
difficult) data.

4ii) The user could be prompted to automatically accept the
suggested options and start the new scan.

4iii) There might be more than one automatically suggestable
option, but the options would explain the best use. For
example - choose option (a) if you are confident that the
disk will not crash. choose option (b) if you want to get
more data in a short time (note - you will probably need to
do another try after this one). choose option (c) if you
want to get as much data as fully possible in this next try.


5) Option for Reporting using some kind of a
 "Tabular Display" using text/characters.
This gives a more "graphical" appearance to the output,
and makes it easier to see how progress is going.

i) Bar chart of progress through source volume
e.g.  IOOOOOOOO.....................I (disk size = blabla
GB)

ii) Table of condition of source and image
Key
Character     Meaning
'?'     copying non-tried blocks
'*'     trimming non-trimmed blocks
'/'     splitting non-split blocks
'-'     retrying bad sectors
'F'     filling specified blocks
'G'     generating approximate logfile
'+'     finished

[scroll the following, while keeping the top part of the
report at the top of the screen,
or divide the space up so that the table will fit within the
remaining screen height]
                Input                            Output
position number I++++++--++++I   position number
I++++++--++++I
position number I++++++++++++I   position number
I++++++++++++I
position number I++??///+++++I   position number
I++??///+++++I
etc downwards


Yours
Al