The DataDump data block capture tool allows the user to read an exact snapshot of the data contents written to a block address or within a region of block addresses. The command line interface (CLI) and the graphical user interface (GUI) will display the data contents divisible by the traditional sector size of a magnetic disk (i.e. 512 bytes). The advantages to using DataDump focus more on data validation and generating small read I/O operations in a controlled environment. The DataDump tool has a built in feature to either retrieve data contents through the local buffered cache paging layer or directly from the disk device via an unbuffered read utilizing a direct I/O mechanism.