ddrescue disk clone Tutorial 2023

[@Vapor817]

This video is a lifesaver, nobody on the internet was giving proper instructions on how to use ddrescue until I found this video

[@patrickfinie4102]

I am glad it helped. :)

[@GalaxySan]

For eons have i searched for a non complex tutorial on DDRescue and thanks to you, I was successfully able to clone my HDD over to a new SSD Thanks mate!

[@K1L0W0G]

Thank you for uploading this vid. I haven't tested yet but i'm confident that I will be able to recover my files.I was very tired when I went to format the PC and ended up deleting the backup HDD with many precious files😢

[@patrickfinie4102]

Best of luck! I have done similar things while tired so i can empathize.

[@TonyG_Film]

Thank you! I’m currently cloning a HD removed from a laptop which will no longer boot windows. Fingers crossed I can access my data after cloning. Further advice welcome.

[@nimbus2146]

thanks for the help

[@patrickfinie4102]

No problem!

[@cremitasam]

I'd love to use this tutorial but I can't even install ddrescue. I'm a complete noob when it comes to Linux. Hopefully I can figure out how to install it and this will help me in the future

[@patrickfinie4102]

It can go under different names. Gnuddrescue, gddrescue or ddrescue. It changes depending on the distribution and how the package maintainers name it.

[@eristtotjim3435]

How to also attempt to rescue the damaged files after doing it with -n. Simply the same without -n again? Will it only try to overwrite missing data then?

[@patrickfinie4102]

DDrescue is a method of recovering drives/disks/discs sector by sector. it doesnt rescue files. So for example if one has a failing drive that has some files that might have been damages, you need to make the cleanest and most complete disk image that you can sector by sector. Then you can mount that image (linux you can use Gnome-disks) and run PhotoRec/TestDisk to try and recover the files.

[@farrasshaesardyhadityo9472]

so if my drive were to failing (unable to be read by windows), does this method could clone or save it? if yes, do i clone it as image or direct drive (question from sum1 who doesn't understand a lot about computer)

[@patrickfinie4102]

DDrescue can be made to make and image or clone a windows drive. Since your drive is failing i would suggest making an image in case the drive fully stops working. Then once you have a good image you can use DDrescue to put the image onto a new drive.

[@4RunningHorses]

I just lost my hard drive. It won't boot. Have tried everything and nothing works. I have Windows 10 on it. I just now came across this possibility; but, everyone keeps mentioning Linux. Will it work on Windows? (Dunno if that's a dumb question. 😅) I ran the ePSA test on the computer and everything is working except the hard drive (error 2000-0142) I'm hoping I can clone it. Another dumb question: does it get cloned onto a blank, new hard drive? Or, does the new hard drive need to be prepared in any way in order to clone it? 😅 Do I hook up the new hard drive and the bad hard drive as external hard drives to a working computer, download and run ddrescue from there? 😅 Sorry for the dumb questions! Thanks in advance for any additional help! 😊

[@patrickfinie4102]

DDrescue can clone to a drive or to an image. This goes sector by sector and thus what the underlying OS's will not matter. Only you can decide if you need to clone to an image or to another drive, but if your drive is failing i suggest cloning to and image. there you can put the image to another drive or if need be do repairs to the iamge before putting the image onto a new drive. DDrescue makes it so you can recover from failing hardware, or at least get as much data as you can. How would i suggest doing this? Lets say your aim is to make an image. 1. make a linux bootable usb drive 2. make sure you have an external drive large enough (with free space) greater than the dying drive. 3. boot the USB drive and install ddrescue the rest of the directions will need to be done on a use case. i have links in the video that should help you figure out how to use ddrescue for different use cases. good luck

[@4RunningHorses]

@@patrickfinie4102 Thank you! This "image" concept is a little confusing. Do you have any videos talking about them? I'm hoping to get a drive twice as large as the faulty one. If I understood correctly, I'm to make a Linux bootable USB for this new drive that has nothing on it. Download and run DDRescue. The target drive will be the new drive. A clone of the drive would make the new drive's OS Windows. The computer should boot up to Windows and files should be accessible. ... ??? An image would require additional steps to make the files accessible. ... ??? Sorry to bother! 😅🫣