Utility or best way to copy data from a bad HD

[htsource]

What's the recommended method to copy data say from a corrupted Windows hard drive? I often mount it to another desktop, attempt to copy data across. However, I always come across I need to take ownership of files, this could potentially add more stress to a bad shape drive. Is there a better way than this?

Thanks for your input.

 

[AlexanderCS]

PartedMagic is good for this. A few techs on here recommended it so I gave it a try--it's a good little tool for $10.

http://partedmagic.com/

Make a clone of the dead drive, then you've got a backup. From there, you can extract just the files the client cares about.

If you want something free, and only care about the copy, just grab CloneZilla without PartedMagic.

 

[phaZed]

First and at the very least.. get off of a Windows box for recovery and run a *nix distro of some sort. Permissions are then no longer an issue and you avoid unnecessary R/W on the drive that using Windows will incur. Also, Windows will usually choke on file transfers when the drive is having a hard time reading, locking the machine up. You will decrease that chance to almost nil using decent hardware and a nix.

I use Kali Linux which is a pentesting and data recovery distro. My data recoveries usually consist of running ddrescue.

 

[ArtemusComputerTechnology]

I agree with PartedMagic and CloneZilla.

HD Clone and Easeus Disk Backup are also good too.

 

[cypress]

PartedMagic is good for this. A few techs on here recommended it so I gave it a try--it's a good little tool for $10.

http://partedmagic.com/

Make a clone of the dead drive, then you've got a backup. From there, you can extract just the files the client cares about.

If you want something free, and only care about the copy, just grab CloneZilla without PartedMagic.

I haven't used PartedMagic in years. Dang a lot has changed. Worth the $10. Thank you.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Parted Magic still seems useful.

 

[lcoughey]

What's the recommended method to copy data say from a corrupted Windows hard drive? I often mount it to another desktop, attempt to copy data across. However, I always come across I need to take ownership of files, this could potentially add more stress to a bad shape drive. Is there a better way than this?

Thanks for your input.

It all depends on the root problem with the drive. But assuming that you are 100% sure that all the heads are fully functional and aren't crashing, use ddrescue to clone and then use R-Studio to by pass file permissions and copy data to destination drive.

 

[SilverLeaf]

What's the recommended method to copy data say from a corrupted Windows hard drive? I often mount it to another desktop, attempt to copy data across. However, I always come across I need to take ownership of files, this could potentially add more stress to a bad shape drive. Is there a better way than this?

Thanks for your input.

If the drive is failing, your best course of action would be to get an image of the drive and apply your file recovery efforts on the image. Otherwise, you may end up pushing the drive over the edge making the data costly, or impossible, to recover. If the data is critical, you may want to consult a data recovery pro.

For imaging a failing drive, ddrescue is the tool that you want...and it is available in just about any linux distro, including the excellent Parted Magic.

Edit: Looks like Luke beat me to it.

 

[htsource]

Thanks guys for the suggestions, I know my limit and generally I don't go too far if I knew it had severe hardware issues and let the pros to work on it.

I'll give partedmagic a try, thanks again.

 

[HFultzjr]

Thanks guys for the suggestions, I know my limit and generally I don't go too far if I knew it had severe hardware issues and let the pros to work on it.

I'll give partedmagic a try, thanks again.

Use the search feature to find some excellent tutorials on dd_rescue. It goes way beyond the auto mode of Parted Magic. Not saying Parted Magic is bad, just another option and you will learn a little about Linux, which will become your friend.

 

[JohnKennex]

Check out slax - live linux distro with good HDD read support. boot up, open drive copy over to SMB share. I almost done even slave drives now.

 

[16k_zx81]

ddrescue. hands down, the best utility anywhere for rescuing dying hard disks.

I have *another* disk in data recovery right now that was totally written off using windows tools, and is imaging fine using ddrescue.

There's plenty of information in this forum about it, including some posts by guys who specialise in data recovery.

Also, there's a GUI now for people that dont like command line.

Guide:
http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48269

GUI:
https://launchpad.net/ddrescue-gui

 

[nextechinc]

For you ddrescue lovers, this is a great addition to the software: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ddrutility/

This guy had written a shell script a while back that had similar functionality, but he's packaged it into a nice utility now. There's several tools available in the package, but the most helpful is ddru_ntfsbitmap. Basically what it does is read the MFT on an NTFS partition and creates a log file to be used with ddrescue to only attempt to retrieve the used data on the partition, rather than every single bit. I've already used it to recover data from a few drives and it has made the job much easier/quicker. Not to mention it's more likely that you're going to get 100% of the customer's data back by not spending time attempting to retrieve useless blocks on a failing drive.

 

[Dave1320]

Looks like I should start learning me some Linux. I used to do commands in putty years ago when I ran a game server. The OP asked a great question, because I used to backup the same way. I guess it's time.

 

[jessepereboom]

Data Recovery

We always try to Clone the drive to a good drive first. We use Acronis 2009. It seems to be better on failing drives than the other years. Then once you have the drive cloned you can move your files much safer. I am basing this off of the information I learned from Scott Moultons podcasts on Podnutz (My Hard Drive Died) . Great podcasts to listen to.

 

[JustInspired]

For you ddrescue lovers, this is a great addition to the software: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ddrutility/

This guy had written a shell script a while back that had similar functionality, but he's packaged it into a nice utility now. There's several tools available in the package, but the most helpful is ddru_ntfsbitmap. Basically what it does is read the MFT on an NTFS partition and creates a log file to be used with ddrescue to only attempt to retrieve the used data on the partition, rather than every single bit. I've already used it to recover data from a few drives and it has made the job much easier/quicker. Not to mention it's more likely that you're going to get 100% of the customer's data back by not spending time attempting to retrieve useless blocks on a failing drive.

Wow. Nice one. I must try to remember to give you +rep when I'm not on my phone (TapaTalk)

 

[PC Ops]

Another vote for Parted Magic. I use it pretty much all the time. Check out this excellent post by Silverleaf http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44181

DDrescue is something I still need to try myself and this post is a great reminder so as of now it's on this week's to do list. [emoji41] Like in this thread I've read only good things about it.

 

[atlanticjim]

I think that we have been answering only half of the OP's question.

Of course the best practice is to clone the drive and work with the clone, but he asked about "copying over data with a corrupt windows OS".

My strategy would be to clone the drive and then use Fabs AutoBackup to copy the user data files. It takes care of bypassing permissions.


BTW. Thanks for the info on PartedMagic

 

[TechPJC]

I have used Parted Magic and Boot-Repair-Disk.