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I'm using GNU ddrescue to clone a failing 500GB disk and the image is currently sitting at 470GB. The problem is that read speed has decreased to only 8-32 KB/s so that remaining 30GB will take forever.

The disk itself only ever had ~450GB worth of stuff on it.

I don't want to wait another two weeks to finish imaging this disk, if it even finishes at all.

Can I just stop ddrescue at this point and try to recover files? I need to recover the original folder structure as well since I used folder names to organize all my files.

fuzzybabybunny
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  • The problem is file fragmentation, you can not guarantee all your files are below the 470GB threshold. The OS tends to scatter the files all around, many of the files might come out intact, but some might not. – cybernard May 17 '16 at 23:18
  • Yeah, that's what I'm worried about as well, but does the OS at least try to write files in physical order, starting at the middle of the disk and moving towards the periphery as space fills up? The reason I ask is that this drive has never had any data deleted off of it, being a backup storage drive. I just fill it until it's full and then just buy a new drive if I need more space. – fuzzybabybunny May 17 '16 at 23:23
  • Chances are it hit some bad sectors, and when you move past them the speed should go back to normal. If you have already waited hours you have a lot of bad sectors – cybernard May 17 '16 at 23:30
  • Hmmm... ddrescue says it hasn't encountered any "errors". Not sure if errors translates into bad sectors. – fuzzybabybunny May 17 '16 at 23:41

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A bit late to the party; but it is possible; I had a 1TB disk that died after ddrescue "saved" about ~120GB. The image could not be loaded on windows or linux.

So I found this tool : http://dmde.com while it is commercial (free 'demo'), I was able to open the image and recover allot. (considering it was only 120GB/800GB data)

I am not affiliated in any way with them, but it did work. For sure if you have a relevant piece there is a large chance most of your data will be in there.

SvennD
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