Best method/tool for cloning a failing HDD for Data Recovery?

nkaufman said:

sdowney717 said:

How did you run ddrescue?
Did you just get booted to a command prompt?
If you boot up a liveusb of linux OS like ubuntu, then you can plug the flash drive in and with file manager view the files on the flash drive.

Ran ddrescue (via flash drive) based on jumanji's instruction in an earlier post in this thread.

So do I need to boot using the flash drive and come to Unix prompt? If so, then what commands do I enter? (afraid I have minimal Unix skills)

Thanks,

Perhaps the easiest way to view linux file system from windows for you is to install linux reader.
Access to Ext 2/3/4, HFS and ReiserFS from Windows

You can then view the files, except I don't know if you can open them to view the inside of a log file. Perhaps it will let you copy the file into windows partition, then you can open it.

Otherwise do this
How to create a bootable USB stick on Windows | Ubuntu

Then reboot from the USB drive. put the other usb stick in the PC, open file manager and you have a gui to read the contents of a log file. You would click on the log file and it would open in gedit.

Congrats @nkaufman for bringing in yet another success story.

sdowney717 and nkaufman have the potential to research and find out how and where the log file is stored and also help those wanting to run ddrescue.. So I shall just sit back and relax. (easy way out for me. I am getting worn out and weary.)

sdowney717 said:

Perhaps the easiest way to view linux file system from windows for you is to install linux reader.
Access to Ext 2/3/4, HFS and ReiserFS from Windows

You can then view the files, except I don't know if you can open them to view the inside of a log file. Perhaps it will let you copy the file into windows partition, then you can open it.

Otherwise do this
How to create a bootable USB stick on Windows | Ubuntu

Then reboot from the USB drive. put the other usb stick in the PC, open file manager and you have a gui to read the contents of a log file. You would click on the log file and it would open in gedit.

Thanks. will try that.

If I can get to the log then I'll see if I can use (in Windows) the following to view the log
ddrescueview from Sourceforge

Seems to be a nice utility for Windows

jumanji said:

Congrats @nkaufman for bringing in yet another success story.

sdowney717 and nkaufman have the potential to research and find out how and where the log file is stored and also help those wanting to run ddrescue.. So I shall just sit back and relax. (easy way out for me. I am getting worn out and weary.)

All thanks to you.

In my opinion, we should have your steps in a sticky or in a wiki somewhere that would help people a lot. If I can get to the log file and view it in Windows then I can certainly add those steps.

Was wondering if you have any comments on post#38 in this thread about the 2 items that I mentioned in there.

Thanks,

nkaufman said:

sdowney717 said:

Perhaps the easiest way to view linux file system from windows for you is to install linux reader.
Access to Ext 2/3/4, HFS and ReiserFS from Windows

You can then view the files, except I don't know if you can open them to view the inside of a log file. Perhaps it will let you copy the file into windows partition, then you can open it.

Otherwise do this
How to create a bootable USB stick on Windows | Ubuntu

Then reboot from the USB drive. put the other usb stick in the PC, open file manager and you have a gui to read the contents of a log file. You would click on the log file and it would open in gedit.

Thanks. will try that.

If I can get to the log then I'll see if I can use (in Windows) the following to view the log
ddrescueview from Sourceforge

Seems to be a nice utility for Windows

Very strange. Downloaded linux-reader and it does read linux files but i do not see recovery log anywhere. Where has it gone? Mystery?

Jumanji - I was thinking that perhaps we have to use the syntax that Anshad was using to set up a folder on the flash drive to save recovery.log else it is gone when system is booted.

Can someone who's used ddrescue in the past please confirm this?

The first success story in using ddrescue came from dragonballz4. Check whether it gives any clue.

Check this post External hard disk unaccessible and the previous ones. He was trying to write the log file into his laptop partition.

Somewhere in one of the Linux forums I did see something mentioned. It said the log file is written into the Ramdrive and it is always preferable to run ddrescue in one stretch without rebooting your PC. Goes on to say if you indeed want to reboot the PC and continue ddrescue from where it stopped you should then write the logfile to a third drive or use persistence in the Linux distro (which copies the ram drive to your linux USB) before quitting so that when you start Linux next time it is copied back to the Ramdrive.

Now I don't know much about Linux/Commands and so I shall give it a pass.:)

In order to make everything easy for a Windows User, (who like me does not know much of Linux) to follow the simple method without trying to write the log file into a third drive. The only thing he needs to do is to let the ddrescue run uninterrupted. He can still stop and start using Ctrl+C but he should not reboot the PC leading to loss of the log file in the RAM.

jumanji said:

I have been brooding over this subject "Which method/tool is best for cloning a failing HDD - including the system drive - for data recovery from the clone.

Has anyone tried cloning for this specific purpose and achieved any results?

I would be interested if they can share their experience or even air their views on the subject.

I suggest you to download IsoBuster instantly and take a Managed IBQ/IBP-Image!

Hi theTechLord,

Welcome to this thread.

Can you please elaborate on how to use the Free version of ISOBuster to clone a failing Hard Disk?

Take the case of nkaufman here.. He has a failing System Disk on his laptop.

What should he do with ISObuster to clone this drive to the new drive? Will the free version do it?

A step by step procedure starting from the installation of ISObuster culminating in the successful cloning to a new drive will help the users. And that is our intention of discussing it here.. ( I am not the affected party. :))

jumanji said:

The first success story in using ddrescue came from dragonballz4. Check whether it gives any clue.

Check this post External hard disk unaccessible and the previous ones. He was trying to write the log file into his laptop partition.

Somewhere in one of the Linux forums I did see something mentioned. It said the log file is written into the Ramdrive and it is always preferable to run ddrescue in one stretch without rebooting your PC. Goes on to say if you indeed want to reboot the PC and continue ddrescue from where it stopped you should then write the logfile to a third drive or use persistence in the Linux distro (which copies the ram drive to your linux USB) before quitting so that when you start Linux next time it is copied back to the Ramdrive.

Now I don't know much about Linux/Commands and so I shall give it a pass.:)

In order to make everything easy for a Windows User, (who like me does not know much of Linux) to follow the simple method without trying to write the log file into a third drive. The only thing he needs to do is to let the ddrescue run uninterrupted. He can still stop and start using Ctrl+C but he should not reboot the PC leading to loss of the log file in the RAM.

I did run ddrescue uninterrupted.

Also, looked at the post you mentioned and I see that dragonballz4 (like Anshad) mounted the folder to save the log. Perhaps if another user who's used ddrescue in the manner similar to mine can look at the flash drive and see if the log file is there.

What do you think?

Thanks,