DDRESCUE - How do I really use this program ??

[Martin Bauer]

Hello All -

I recently thought I needed to use ddrescue ( though luckily I was able to auto import one last time and save the day !! ) - and I see the usefulness of the ddrescue operation ( save every bit as an image somewhere safe ) -

However I cannot seem to find much info on the program and it's uses - can anyone point me in the right direction ? I'm willing to study but can't seem to find the info -
So far I've only found the http://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org site and somehow that's leaving me wanting -
Am I overthinking this ? - Is ddrescue available in Freenas ?

I will also admit I am running on 2ish hours of sleep ( several nights running ) so I'm a little dense right now and want a little hand-holding - I'll return the favor someday :)​

Oh and by the way, my next recovery 'project' is trying to recover some data from a failed IMAC 500GB HDD -
which is why I thought I could use ddrescue - but that's going to be in a different post - To Be Continued .....

 

[rs225]

I don't use it enough to have the flags memorized, but I think the manpage is very helpful with examples.

The key thing to remember is that you need another place (either another drive, or a potentially gigantic file) to store the full image, and that you don't want to ever get confused about which drive is which. :)

ddrescue also stores a file that helps it keep track of what it has done so far. This means you can stop ddrescue, turn off the power, bang the drive (metaphorically speaking ;), turn it all back on, re-run ddrescue so that it knows it is resuming, and it should pick up where it left off.

At some point, you either succeed, or make no progress for a long enough period of time that you can 'give up' and then see if you have anything useful recovered.

 

[Martin Bauer]

Thanks rs225 - I will assume that ddrescue IS available in Freenas - I'll give it a whirl and use the man pages re: the specifics - I have a 2T drive to receive the 500GB - so hopefully it will work out -

I'll take anyone's advice at this point -

thanks again !

 

[rs225]

I don't know that it is part of FreeNAS. It is generally run on a Linux or BSD system you already have.

 

[travalon]

Linux questions.org will help.