Dammit, I didn't know ddrescue would overwrite or delete files on the external hard drive I was transferring to... or is it just on a different partition? Is there any way to undelete them or undo all of this? This is worse than losing my laptops hard drive! Those files were irreplaceable!
When using ddrescue you must use a blank empty drive as destination drive.. This is a basic and fundamental requirement. ddrescue writes a sector to sector copy of the drive being cloned. If you had used a drive that was not empty as the destination drive then you had lost all original data in it. Since fresh data from the cloned drive has been overwritten on it there is absolutely no possibility of recovering it.
Well this is a complete disaster. So there is no possible way of undoing any of this damage? What about Photorec?
Sorry to say no way if ddrescue had completed cloning..
My post No: 12 :in Best method/tool for cloning a failing HDD for Data Recovery?
"2. Boot your computer with that pen drive with your source disk (your failing disk) and a destination disk (formatted empty disk of capacity not less than that of your source disk) plugged in."
You must always give a thorough reading and understand the process.
It didn't complete cloning, I interrupted it as soon as I realized what it was doing to my EHD
rescued: 24702 MB, errsize: 65536 B, current rate: 0 B/s
ipos: 24702 MB, errors: 1, average rate: 23526 kB/s
opos: 24702 MB, run time: 17.50 m, successful read: 1.16 m ago
Copying non-tried blocks... Pass 1 (forwards)^C
Interrupted by user
Well, from a distance it is not possible to assess the damage done.
If you have another PC from which you can run PhotoRec, install TestDisk and run PhotoRec in it and see whether it can reconstruct anything from your external drive..
Guide to using PhotoRec recovery software.
Before running PhotoRec plug in another external drive with adequate space to copy the files recovered. Create a folder named Recovery in it. Show this drive and folder as the destination to copy the files.
Go to the topic under Recovery in that thread. (Omit what is stated above that topic which only says how I formatted the drive to test PhotoRec and recovered the lost files )
Please go through all documentation on PhotoRec in TestDisk website. PhotoRec - Digital Picture and File Recovery
I really do not know how far it will be successful in this case.
I find it hard to believe entire TB's of data were overwritten during the few minutes of the cloning process. It's like all the data was wiped or something. Also knoppix is detecting the new cloned partition (OS) as well as SDC1 (original name of the external HD. However, it won't let me mount the latter.
Error opening '/dev/sdc1': No such device or address
Failed to mount '/dev/sdc1': No such device or address
Either the device is missing or it's powered down, or you have
SoftRAID hardware and must use an activated, different device under
/dev/mapper/, (e.g. /dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1) to mount NTFS.
Please see the 'dmraid' documentation for help.
I will try recovering the lost files with photorec and recuva on another laptop with working windows.
If that doesn't work, I may look into forensic software like EnCase, Foremost, or OCFA
Schofield's Second Law of Computing states that data doesn't really exist unless you have at least two copies of it. Kinda goes along with Murphy's Law if anything can go wrong, it will.
What a pickle.
Yes, you may be right when you say that "I find it hard to believe entire TB's of data were overwritten during the few minutes of the cloning process" By the same token it may not be able to wipe the HDD also completely.
Just for the record please post a screenshot of how your external drive looks like in Windows Disk Management.
Your statement also made me think that perhaps you should try GetDataback Simple straightaway. If the MFT (Master File Table) has not been overwritten, it may perhaps find most of the files if any left. Also the author of TestDisk says when PhotoRec fails try GetDataback or Zero Assumption Recovery.
So do this first. Download the trial version of GetDataback Simple and scan your external drive. GetDataback Simple does not write anything to the drive and so it is absolutely safe like PhotoRec. If Getdataback Simple shows the files which you can preview also and assess the integrity, well and good.
With the Trial version you can't copy the files. You have to buy the license for it.
If it is successful in atleast showing most or some of the files with intact integrity, then try PhotoRec which is free. You can consider buying GetDataback after that.
It is already late for me ( to go to bed :)) and so I shall comeback only after another 8 to 10 hours.
Getdataback Simple: https://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm
Clap, clap, clap. I enjoyed it. Even with all the precautions things can go wrong if destined.
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