Wholedisk

Wholedisk is a term used in data storage and digital forensics to describe approaches, formats, or projects that treat an entire disk, including all partitions and boot sectors, as a single logical unit for management.

In practice, Wholedisk representations enable bit-for-bit imaging, consistent backups, and reproducible restores of the complete drive state. They commonly include metadata about partition layout, filesystem types, and cryptographic integrity checks.

Implementation often uses a container or virtual disk file that maps to the real device, with support for incremental updates, compression, and encryption. Some systems allow mounting the image to access individual partitions without restoring to physical hardware.

Common applications include disaster recovery, digital forensics, archival backups, and migration to new hardware. Limitations can include large storage requirements, longer initial processing times, compatibility constraints with live systems, and the need for specialized tooling.

The term is used variably, and different projects may define Wholedisk with slightly different semantics, such as whether live disk access is allowed or whether the image captures slack space.