[Bug-ddrescue] Utility to mark unused space as done

[Robert Backhaus]

DDrescue really is the best tool I know of to recover data, but there
is one thing that is missing.

I really need a set of utilities (for different filessytems) that can
use a partial dump and log file, and create a log file with the unused
sections of the drive marked read. It seems such a required function
that it is hard to believe that no one has created them, but I have
not been able to find them.

An additional feture would be to be able to mark particular files
(pagefile.sys and hyberfile.sys come to mind) as read.

If my dreams came true, displaying filenames that are known and their
blocks, so that I can know where the important files are and recover
them first.

If this was done, a change to the logfile structure would be also
useful: an additional type of block, say with the marking character a
number from 0 to 9, indicating priority (logically it would be like ?,
ie untried). This would go along with a new option, where you could
specify the minimum priority that ddrescue would attempt to read. A
workflow would go like this:
1. run ddrescue using -s to get the first few megabytes.
2. Run the utility to analyze the partial log file, which would mark
unused blocks as +, and mark known files like this

0xposition  0xsize  ?  # /hyberfile.sys
0xposition 0xsize  ?  # /Users/

3. Edit the log file, changing the ? to + for files I do not need to
recover, and changing the ? to, say '9' for things I need. For
instance

0xposition  0xsize  +  # /hyberfile.sys
0xposition 0xsize  9  # /Users/

4. Then run ddrescue with a, say --min_priority=9 argument. That would
get me the directory for /users and allow me to do steps 2 and three
again, to prioritize and get user files first.

5. If needed, run ddrescue as normal to get the rest of the files.

Anyway, that's my dream, but has anyone produced the simple(r) 'mark
unused' utilities? At least for ntfs and/or vfat?