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Recovering data

C

carlmart

Gawd
Joined
Sep 17, 2006
Messages
691
After a recent HDD failure, I think I will stop trying using external cases for HDD housing.

But I will open another thread to discuss that. For now I would like some help to see how I can retrieve the files I have on that HDD, which still shows the root directory but it takes hours to move or copy anything from it.

S.M.A.R.T diagnoses it as total failure, and I believe it is so.

Googling for ways to recover my data, I found a way to do so using Parted Magic, with Linux.

Let's hope there are ways to get my data back. Suggestions are welcome on whatever path I should go.
 
My advice is

1. Stop using the drive. The longer its powered on the less of a chance you will have to recover
2. Get a new drive of the same or larger size
3. Use gnu ddrescue available on a linux live cd / dvd / usbstick to make a bit for bit copy of all the readable sectors from the old drive to the new.
4. Then try recovering files.
 
1) Already did that.
2) Can I use an internal HDD to recover the data to? I plan to deactivate all my external drives. The HDD has to be empty?
3) Where do I get linux live and what version should it be?
4) What do I use to recover the files?

Aren't there any Windows recovery programs I can use? Or all of them may make things worst?
 
2) ddrescue will totally overwrite the destination disk so if you have one that you do not care about its contents that will be fine. However there is a way to get ddrescue to rescue to an image file but then recovery may be more difficult/impossible especially if you have to use a windows based recovery tool.

3) I use sysrescuecd for that mostly. Although clonezilla may have ddrescue on the iso.

4) Maybe testdisk. It really depends on how much corruption you have.
 
Here is some info about ddrescue.

http://techmuck.blogspot.com/2012/03/data-recovery-with-gnu-ddrescue.html

The above blog gives most of the steps but did not really cover the device identification well. You need to ba absolutely 100% sure what device is the source and what device is the destination since ddrescue will not warn you if you get that reversed. In that case it will be happy to overwrite your data on the bad disk with the 0s that you will find on new drive. I generally use smartctl to do the identification step looking at serial numbers. Also to simplify this step remember to unplug all other drives from the system to make the decision easier.
 
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The idea is to use ddrescue to clone the failing HDD to a new HDD, unplugging all other HDDs from PC.

Then plug them back and use Photorec/Win 64 version to recover the data.

Any other suggestion?
 
I would strongly recommend to get the failed drive out of the external housing and put it directly in your PC together with the disk you will ddrescue too. Having the disk in the PC will speed up the process, because ddrescue is very chatty on the link to the HDD, and USB 2.0 is slow.

Disconnect all drives from your pc except the "to" and "from" disk for ddrescue. That way you cannot accidentally overwrite the wrong disk.

Also make sure the failing disk is cooled properly. Most drive failures I have seen in external housings are due to overheating. Cooling may help, or it may not. I would try it because aiming a fan at the HDD is a small effort.
 
Also, re-evaluate your backup strategy. Endeavors like what you are about to try are best avoided altogether. The chances of getting all your data back aren't that great to be honest.
 
OK, I started the process.

Unfortunately I couldn't get the System Rescue CD to boot, so I ended up booting with Parted Magic.

Right now I'm in the middle of cloning with PM, which hopefully is fine too. Problem it's gonna take what seems INFINITE hours. Right now is at 74 hours and climbing by the minute. I think I should stop that process and try something else.

I am not sure what happened with the System Rescue CD or why it didn't boot as it should.

Of course I disconnected everything in my PC, except the original HDD and the clone to be. The original is out of the box and connected directly.

Yes, I will re-evaluate my future backup strategy, particularly by not using external boxes anymore. I trusted this one because power was through the usb cable. So maybe it was just a problem with this specific Seagate 2.5" HDD, which a friend did warn me of being very fragile.

So, what can I do to make the System Rescue Cd to work, and what process can I use that will not take a week to get my data?

As it is I'm tempted to get by and risk with the simpler copy I was using, within Windows itself. It took some time and froze in the middle a lot, but it ended up completing the copy. But I do know that was because the data was not fine and that things might get even worst.

Some opinions on what could be my options are very welcome.
 
Right now I'm in the middle of cloning with PM, which hopefully is fine too.
Click to expand...

Not as good as ddrescue. Since ddrescue works around the bad parts to recover the good.

So, what can I do to make the System Rescue Cd to work
Click to expand...

Hard to guess what the problem is. I have rarely had any problems (and I am talking about dozens of different machines) booting with sysrescue off a USB stick created with either of the following utilities:

http://www.linuxliveusb.com/
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/
 
Well, I'm booting from a CD, not an USB stick. Do tell where to download the right version to burn a CD with.

There is a Rescue folder inside Parted Magic, and ddrescue is inside it. So I could still use it.

Now I would like to erase the new HDD to begin from fresh, but I'm not familiar with the Linux options for doing that. Should I pick the first on the list: write zeros using dd?
 
OK, now I was checking a tutorial I had found on data recovery, using the System Rescue CD and ddrescue.

It does warn that the recovery process is very slow and that it can take days to do it. I'm afraid I can't immobilize my PC for days, maybe 10 or 15 hours at most.

So what other options I may have, even within Linux? I mean like copying folder by folder from one HDD to the other.

I'm seeing the HDDs with File Manager, but It doesn't let me move things.
 
I forgot to mention that the damaged HDD has about 900Gb of data to be (hopefully) recovered.

That's why ddrescue processing should take so long.
 
Right now I ended up finding an HD I knew I had, but couldn't place, holding most of the folders in the failing HD.

So what I really need to do now is go folder by folder and copy only the newer files, or those that were not backed.

How should I best go about that? Can I do it within Linux and cause less harm?
 
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