On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 13:44:35 -0400, Paul wrote:

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Ken Blake
writes:
On Mon, 09 Oct 2017 23:19:30 -0500, wrote:


So, I've come to the conclusion it's hopeless trying to recover from
this drive. However, I am going to still see if a professional data
recovery service can do it.



In case you're not aware of it, such a service is *very* expensive. Be
prepared to pay well over $1000

Wasn't there a piece of software - it either ran under DOS or included
the OS, I think it was bootable in itself - that would repeatedly read
until it got something (possibly taking days to do a disc)? I think it
cost about 50 pounds. (I vaguely remember the name Spinrite, but that
might be something else entirely.)

I don't know if it works at all with modern (even as old as is being
considered here) discs that have remapping firmware.

GRC Spinrite ?

How to beat a disk to death, in one easy lesson.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpinRite
snip

Every couple of posts in this thread, it might be worth reminding the OP
that ddrescue is really the best hope. If that can't be made to run
successfully for any number of reasons, then IMHO the amount of hope for
success is greatly reduced.

I would disconnect the problematic drive, multiple partitions and all,
until I get ddescue working, even if that means buying a $15 optical
drive if the PC can't boot from USB.

--

Char Jackson