disk_reader

Disk reader

Disk reading tool for HFS Plus file system created with C. This repo contains different images in the disk_reader/images/ directory, the image file system appears on its name. For example, ntfs.img indicates this image has a NTFS file system. The program first reads the image's MBR, then it displays its partitions, and finally you can get more info on this partitions; when reading partitions the program only works with the HFS Plus file systems.

Mac doesn't allow disks to boot through MBR, but it does allow files to be read through MBR. To do the actual booting you'd need to use UUID instead of MBR.

Run the code

Short way

Simply run ./run.sh on the disk_reader/ directory.

Long way

To compile the code you just need to run the following command inside the disk_reader/src/ directory:

make

Once you have the executable version run it with:

./disk_reader.exe ${FILE}

Here the ${FILE} parameter represents the disk image you want to read. The src files are spread all over the place to follow a modular architecture and follow what I currently consider best practices. When running the code with run.sh a file called disk_reader/images/hfs_plus.img gets opened in the editor by default.

Teacher instructions

Create a program capable of reading memory disks and retrieve information from their partitions if they use HFS Plus.

All image files where provided by Dr. René Mac Kinney.