Recovering data from fading hard disk

seagatedoge · May 20, 2016

Hi,

I have a hard disk quickly on the way out, but I am still able to access the files on it. I want to recover nearly 2TB from it, and I am wondering the best way to do this. I haven't been copying large files across because I don't want to wear out the HDD, but I have copied some text documents which took a long time for their size.

Is it possible to clone the disk, and does cloning require a completely clean backup partition (on a separate disk, of course)? I have a backup disk, but only one partition on it with files already there, and I don't want to get rid of them.

I have the HDD plugged in via USB to a Linux Mint laptop; I took it out of its home Windows computer because it would come and go from My Computer but on Linux its connection stays constant.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Phillip Corcoran · May 20, 2016

Cloning requires a totally empty target drive, not merely an empty partition.

What you could do, however, is create a "partition image" which creates a file that you can save to an existing partition, even one which already has data on it (provided there's enough free space on it of course).

When you get a new hard drive drive you can then reverse the process by using the same disk-imaging software to write that partition image to the new drive.

Try this free one: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

S Haran · May 20, 2016

Where you are running Linux you may want to use ddrescue. It is designed to image failing drives. You can write an image to a disk or a file. There are several usage guides online. With that said if this is high value data you should consult a pro.

ex_bubblehead · May 20, 2016

S Haran :

And as an aside, if you do use ddrescue to image a failing/failed drive be prepared for the process to take an extremely long time. As an example, I recently had to attempt a court ordered recovery on a 360GB laptop drive that had been dropped while in operation. The ddrescue image process ran 24hr/day for 8 straight weeks to produce the image that I finally worked over with testdisk for an additional 24hr. Actually managed to recover 98.6% of the drive contents and 100% of the targeted data.

seagatedoge · May 20, 2016

Thanks, everyone, for the answers.
I am using ddrescue on a live USB of the free version of Medboot.

I put this command in Terminal to get used to the program:

Code:

dd_rescue /media/500GB/ddrescuetest.txt /media/Backup/2TB/ddrescuetestimage.dd

From all appearances that worked (I didn't try to restore from it).
I've decided I don't want all the files off the 2TB so I am going by directory. I put this in:

Code:

dd_rescue /media/2TB/My\ Videos/ /media/Backup/2TB/MyVideosImage.dd

Terminal shows constant activity, but every block it has encountered so far (up to 250,000 now) has been bad. The MyVideosImage.dd remains at 0 bytes. Shown every time a block is parsed is a warning that My Videos is a directory. Thinking about it, my little test might not have been so good because I did not transfer a directory but a specific file. Is this why it has not transferred anything or am I just going through a lot of bad blocks (like 100 a millisecond)?

ex_bubblehead · May 20, 2016

You'll find the ddrescue manual here: https://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/manual/ddrescue_manual.html

And a tutorial here: http://www.debianadmin.com/recover-data-from-a-dead-hard-drive-using-ddrescue.html

ddrescue doesn't work with directories, it works with disks/partitions.

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Recovering data from fading hard disk

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