IT Quickie: DiskProbe for Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 2008+ Direct from Microsoft

DiskProbe (DskProbe.exe) is a low level disk sector editor published by Microsoft.  It was released originally as part of the Windows support tools for Windows NT 4.  It is a really handy tool for rebuilding an erased partition table, fix a busted MBR, fix a partition's boot sector, or just poke around on the disk.

Microsoft released versions for NT 4, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, and Windows XP.   Unfortunately, they have not released a version for 2008+, or Windows 7, 8, 8.1+.

Here is how you get a version that will run on Windows 7/8+ 32 and 64 bit, straight from Microsoft, malware free.

• Download the Windows XP Service Pack 2 Support tools from Microsoft.
• Protip: Don't just run it.  You'll get this error pop-up
  

This Product can be installed only on Windows XP

• Next, make a folder.  I chose c:\users\v-elgree\SupportTools
• Run the downloaded executable with the options to extract the files to the folder you created.
• WindowsXP-KB838079-SupportTools-ENU.exe /C /T:c:\users\v-elgree\SupportTools
• Next, we'll extract DskProbe from the Cab files inside that package.
• expand c:\users\v-elgree\SupportTools\support.cab c:\users\v-elgree\SupportTools -F:DSK*

• That's it.  Open your folder and there's DskProbe.exe
• Remember to run it as Administrator.

If you really want to dig into this, take a look at Chapter 12 "File Systems" of the Windows Internals books.  In the current edition this chapter is in the second book. 

Windows Internals, 6th Edition Book 2
 

The learning curve on using this is steep, and it's as user friendly as an angry porcupine.  You can very easily irreparably lose data with it.  You can also fix a lot of things and be a rock star.

Closing Thought:  
- Backup.  Backup?  Backup!