[TriLUG] image of hard drive question

[Joseph Mack NA3T]

On Fri, 21 Dec 2012, Bryan Pearson wrote:

> I'll keep "gnu ddrescue" in mind if some blocks have been lost.

If it's clicking, I would do this first and right now. You 
haven't lost blocks; you're loosing the drive mechanism (I 
think). Use a live CD (any of the ones mentioned in this 
thread) in the machine, and a usb flash drive for the log 
file.

Do the recovery in two phases. First grab the easy stuff, 
and then retry the bad areas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dd_(Unix)#Data_recovery

If you're lucky, the bad blocks won't be in a file. Try 
fsck-ing the copy at this stage. If you still have blocks to 
recover, put the dubious disk in the freezer (in a plastic 
bag) for a couple of hours and then ddrescue it in the 
plastic bag on the bench (plastic bag, so the disk doesn't 
get wet and short out). At this stage you've recovered as 
much as you're likely to get and you can thank your lucky 
stars.

Joe

-- 
Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant map
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