[Bug-ddrescue] Utility to read only used portion of NTFS disk

[Scott Dwyer]

I have been working on a new utility that could potentially use ddrescue 
to read only the used portion of a NTFS disk. It works by extracting the 
bitmap file and then creating a custom logfile to work from. (One of the 
neat things about this is that it has put me a few steps closer to 
actually being able to extract individual files from a failing NTFS 
disk, using raw reads with ddrescue and processing parts of the MFT.) I 
have a working test version right now that shows the concept can be 
done. However…

I have hit a major road block. Actually I have come up to a deep ravine 
and there is a rope walking bridge, and I need to drive a semi truck 
across it. So I need to build a new bridge from scratch. Since I am not 
technically a programmer, I don’t know any good languages and have been 
doing everything in bash script. But bash is just way too slow to do 
what I need. I can see I need to teach myself C, which isn’t going to 
happen overnight.

Until I can learn C, I could use a bit of help from someone. I have a 
small bash script that I need converted to something much faster. If 
that could be done then I could produce a working alpha version for the 
masses to try out. More info can be found at the home for my ddrutility 
program on the Ubutu forum. Or I could email what I need to someone. The 
script is commented fairly well, and there is a readme file with it.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

Scott