FlashTester 0.2.0

FlashTester v0.2.0 adds file-level and whole-disk backup and restore in the GUI and command line.

New in this release

• Save files to a single ZIP archive with a SHA-256 manifest. Restore into a new folder, preserving file contents, empty folders and modification times.
• Save every disk sector to an .img file with an .img.json checksum manifest. Restore requires a destination at least as large and with the same logical sector size.
• Validate backups before restore and read the restored data back afterward. Reject corrupt input, existing output paths, unsafe archive paths and backups stored on the same physical disk.
• Keep system disks protected from backup-source and restore operations. They can hold backup files. Whole-disk restore requires explicit erase confirmation.

Downloads

Platform	Binary	Interface
Windows 10/11 x64	flashtester.exe	GUI and CLI
Linux x64	flashtester-linux-x86_64	GUI and CLI
Linux ARM64	flashtester-linux-aarch64	GUI and CLI
FreeBSD amd64	flashtester-freebsd-x86_64	CLI
Haiku x64, experimental	flashtester-haiku-x86_64	CLI

Windows needs no installer or extra DLLs. Linux and FreeBSD binaries are statically linked. Linux GUI mode requires X11 or XWayland. On Unix, run chmod +x <filename> and then ./<filename> --help. Start Windows or Linux without arguments to open the GUI.

See SHA256SUMS for hashes and BUILDINFO.txt for build provenance and validation.

Backup limits

Backups must be on a different physical disk from the source or restore destination. File backups are not snapshots and do not preserve permissions, ownership, alternate data streams or other filesystem metadata. Close programs using the source. System-drive backups are not supported.

Whole-disk images include unused space. Keep the image and its JSON manifest together. Restore does not expand partitions on a larger disk. Unreadable data stops the operation; failed or cancelled output remains incomplete. Read-back checks may use the OS cache and do not prove that a drive survives power loss.

Haiku remains experimental, CLI-only and untested at runtime for this release. It requires updated R1/beta5 system libraries. File operations require BFS, and whole-disk backup, free-space probing and formatting are unavailable.

Known issue: the existing Windows raw-read IOPS path returned error 87 in a disposable-VHD test. File-mode benchmarks remain available.

See the backup documentation for commands and platform requirements.