ddrescue¶

"GNU ddrescue - Data recovery tool. Copies data from one file or block device to another, trying to rescue the good parts first in case of read errors." - man ddrescue

There are actually two tools called ddrescue: dd_rescue and gddrescue. gddrescue is the best.

• Software home page - http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/
• Instruction Manual - http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/manual/ddrescue_manual.html

Examples¶

Attempt to mirror an entire hard disk¶

ddrescue -f -n --min-read-rate=500000 /dev/source_disk /dev/target_disk ~/ddrescue.log

This uses the minimum read rate to skip sctors that may be bad on the input device.

Wipe a hard disk and log bad sectors¶

sudo ddrescue --force /dev/zero /dev/disk/by-id/ata-foo ~/ddrescue-ata-foo.log

You can re-run this exact same command to resume the wipe of a hard disk.

Attempt to continue the mirror of a hard disk¶

ddrescue -f -n -A /dev/source_disk /dev/target_disk ~/ddrescue.log

Wipe the good sectors of a failing disk¶

This requires a valid rescue log file mapping out the good sectors that were recovered.

ddrescue --fill=+ --force /dev/zero /dev/bad_drive ~/bad_drive_wipe.log

See Also¶

• dcfldd
• dd
• pv