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Hopeless Data Recovery



 
 
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  #1  
Old October 10th 17, 05:19 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
No_Name
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 30
Default Hopeless Data Recovery

I found that Seagate makes software for disks that contains Acronis True
Image. That software is highly praised and costs a fair amount, but if
the drive is a Seagate, or Maxtor (owned by Seagate), the software is
free.

I downloaded it, ran it, and could not use my computer for 23+ hours
while it ran. It made an image of the whole defective partition to
another parttition. When it was done, it said there were errors and they
were listed in a .log file. The list of errors was very large, but the
majority of them were on folders which I have backed up. Yet, there were
still at least 80 or 100 missing from the files I need to recover.
However I was still far ahead from trying to copy files manually.

I nearly thought I was succeeding, and was nearly ready to toss that bad
drive in the trash and just try to locate and re-download the files that
were not copied (saved as ZERO BYTES). Then I discovered that none of
the .PDF files that were recovered could be used. All of them are
defectiive (except the ones I also saved by direct manual copy).

Just for the heck of it, I chose one defective PDF, which was recovered
at 256kb. I searched for it online, and re-downloaded it. That file is
supposed to be 742kb.

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.

And just to satisfy those of you who think linux can do this better, I
could not locate ddrescue or gddrescue online, but I did download a ISO
called systemrescuecd. I used unetbootn to make a bootable flash drive,
and said a lot of filthy words after trying several flash drives, none
of which would boot. And yes, my bios is set to boot from a flash drive,
since my Puppy linux stick does boot. This came as no surprise to me.
Thats the same bad luck I have always had with any and all forms of
linux, and I guess I needed to waste a few more hours of my time to
confirm why I hate linux.


Ads
  #2  
Old October 10th 17, 08:37 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Hopeless Data Recovery

wrote:
I found that Seagate makes software for disks that contains Acronis True
Image. That software is highly praised and costs a fair amount, but if
the drive is a Seagate, or Maxtor (owned by Seagate), the software is
free.

I downloaded it, ran it, and could not use my computer for 23+ hours
while it ran. It made an image of the whole defective partition to
another parttition. When it was done, it said there were errors and they
were listed in a .log file. The list of errors was very large, but the
majority of them were on folders which I have backed up. Yet, there were
still at least 80 or 100 missing from the files I need to recover.
However I was still far ahead from trying to copy files manually.

I nearly thought I was succeeding, and was nearly ready to toss that bad
drive in the trash and just try to locate and re-download the files that
were not copied (saved as ZERO BYTES). Then I discovered that none of
the .PDF files that were recovered could be used. All of them are
defectiive (except the ones I also saved by direct manual copy).

Just for the heck of it, I chose one defective PDF, which was recovered
at 256kb. I searched for it online, and re-downloaded it. That file is
supposed to be 742kb.

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.

And just to satisfy those of you who think linux can do this better, I
could not locate ddrescue or gddrescue online, but I did download a ISO
called systemrescuecd. I used unetbootn to make a bootable flash drive,
and said a lot of filthy words after trying several flash drives, none
of which would boot. And yes, my bios is set to boot from a flash drive,
since my Puppy linux stick does boot. This came as no surprise to me.
Thats the same bad luck I have always had with any and all forms of
linux, and I guess I needed to waste a few more hours of my time to
confirm why I hate linux.


At least you've kept your positive attitude and your sense of humor.

I still have no idea what kind of computer this is,
or even what era. I suspect it has IDE drives. As a guess.

I can check your distro here, for basic info. It's a small
image, Gentoo based.

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?dis...n=systemrescue

I downloaded the current one. I checked, and I have *seven*
other versions here. WTF. I don't remember using those, so
somebody must have asked me to try them out. Now I have eight
images.

Here's the latest one. For some reason, Xwindows didn't start,
so I had to issue a "startx" in the black terminal window, and the
GUI came up. The logged in user is "root", so you won't
need to add "sudo" to any commands needing elevation.
You can just use "ddrescue" without a sudo in front.

https://s1.postimg.org/69814ombvj/sysrescue_511.gif

The "ddrescue" command appears to be on the thing, as it
was there when I tried running it.

ddrescue -h

*******

So now we have to tackle, how did you get sysrescue
onto the Flash key. I checked the disc type, and it's an
old style ElTorito/Joliet overlay CD (like, forever). It's
not a newer hybrid. That means you can't just "dd" it onto
a USB stick.

Unetbootin lists SysRescueCD, so it's supposed to be
able to use it.

http://unetbootin.github.io/

The .dat on the SysRescueCD appears to be a ZIP style
archive of some sort. It's not a squashFS. I checked
my earliest version of SysRescue and it has the
same formulation. Whatever has happened, doesn't
seem to be some recent change.

And the SysRescueCD site itself has a bunch of recipes
for installing.

http://www.system-rescue-cd.org/Inst...n-a-USB-stick/

Using UnetBootin and using the ISO menu at the
bottom section of the screen, puts this on my *FAT32* USB key.
The ones with arrows below, those are contents that
came from the ISO. In addition, the [BOOT] on the ISO,
was replaced by the "isolinux" folder (as far as I know).

Volume in drive R is TRANSFER
Volume Serial Number is 0862-E66E

Directory of R:\

08/27/2013 2,422,752 ubnkern
02/01/2014 1,331,714 ubninit
10/10/2017 DIR boot ---
10/10/2017 DIR bootdisk ---
10/10/2017 DIR efi ---
10/10/2017 DIR isolinux ---
10/10/2017 DIR ntpasswd ---
10/10/2017 DIR usb_inst ---
10/10/2017 109 ubnpathl.txt
03/19/2017 2,363 readme.txt ---
09/29/2017 441,069,568 sysrcd.dat ---
09/29/2017 45 sysrcd.md5 ---
03/19/2017 15,946 usb_inst.sh ---
03/19/2017 912 usbstick.htm ---
09/29/2017 6 version ---
10/10/2017 10,723 ubnfilel.txt
10/10/2017 5,817 syslinux.cfg
10/10/2017 60,928 menu.c32

The USB key I made... doesn't boot. It is
not able to mount any partition. You can tell it's
struggling, and the text on the screen is coming
from the UnetBootin bootstrapper and not SysRescueCD.

OK, time to try another USB key tool. The portable version
for Windows.

https://rufus.akeo.ie/

https://rufus.akeo.ie/downloads/rufus-2.17p.exe (966,776 bytes)

Scan is clean.

https://www.virustotal.com/#/file/26...5ff6/detection

That's doing the same type of things as UnetBootin.
It's adding IsoLinux to aid boot off the USB.
I used the menu near the bottom, to select the ISO
option, and the blob to the right of it, to get
to a file manager window to select the ISO I wanted
to use.

The transfer to the USB stick was faster, but because
I was in a VM, it wasn't super-fast.

Now, over to the Test Machine to test it...

OK, using the BIOS boot menu, I select legacy rather
than UEFI boot, since I know it's not a hybrid source
and doesn't have the UEFI files.

When the SysRescue menu comes up, I cursor down
to line "(6)" for graphical start. Then hit return.

Once it coughs up text, it will stop for keyboard type,
I hit return again as US keyboard declaration is good
enough.

And the desktop comes up, as it should. It looks
the same as my "sysrescue_511.gif" image on postimage
above. The difference is, by selecting option 6, I
don't need any startx to be entered into a black screen
and it does that on its own.

So give Rufus a try. Initially I thought the results
would be the same, as it's an isolinux installer too,
but it seems to be more up-to-date than unetbootin.
(And I did use the latest unetbootin too, because
I don't normally stock these items. This is the first
time I've tried Rufus for example. And this wouldn't
be the first time that utnetbootin has let me down.)

HTH,
Paul
  #5  
Old October 10th 17, 06:44 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Hopeless Data Recovery

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

The techniques described, I noticed these working in the lab
about 30 years ago. They cannot possibly be valid today.
Too much has changed.

Back in the old days, on SCSI or SASI disks, we had factory
and grown defect lists. And semi-automatic sparing. Now,
sector sparing is automatic. And I'm not aware of any way
to access a disk-level spares list (i.e. access the look-up
table that maps LBA to "real" sector number). And scrubbing
the disk 2000 times on one track, while in theory will
not damage anything, it really depends on whether there
was a debris field, and you're causing multiple head crashes
by driving the heads over the area.

Paul
  #6  
Old October 10th 17, 07:04 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
J. P. Gilliver (John)[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,679
Default Hopeless Data Recovery

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

[]
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

[]
GRC Spinrite ?

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

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

The techniques described, I noticed these working in the lab
about 30 years ago. They cannot possibly be valid today.
Too much has changed.

Back in the old days, on SCSI or SASI disks, we had factory
and grown defect lists. And semi-automatic sparing. Now,


Yes; those huge (physically, not capacity - that was usually just a few
MB!) drives came with a printed label showing the defects!

sector sparing is automatic. And I'm not aware of any way
to access a disk-level spares list (i.e. access the look-up
table that maps LBA to "real" sector number). And scrubbing


I would guess that there _is_ a way, but it's probably specific to each
manufacturer, and somewhat closely guarded secret in each case. (Maybe
also requiring extra connections to test points on the controller board
too.)

the disk 2000 times on one track, while in theory will
not damage anything, it really depends on whether there
was a debris field, and you're causing multiple head crashes
by driving the heads over the area.

Paul


Indeed. Though it _sounds_ like the OP's disc has one or two just dud
sectors - possibly just a defective coating. (Which could indeed create
debris, if it's flaked off, of course.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Wisdom is the ability to cope. - the late (AB of C) Michael Ramsey,
quoted by Stephen Fry (RT 24-30 August 2013)
  #7  
Old October 10th 17, 08:12 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Char Jackson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,449
Default Hopeless Data Recovery

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
  #8  
Old October 10th 17, 10:16 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Hopeless Data Recovery

Char Jackson wrote:
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.


I'm sure he'll get SysRescue running now.

It's just a matter of whether he does a disk to disk
clone, has enough spare disks and so on, so that
a safe recovery can be attempted.

ddrescue
Bad ------- "Golden ---- Experimental
Drive Clone" Clone (run CHKDSK here)

[Stop [This one [This one is for
using is experiments and is
this] read-only] read/write]

The idea being, if the Bad Drive dies, all your copies
then come from the "Golden Clone". If you want to try
a particular repair-in-place tool like CHKDSK, then you
copy the Golden master to your second disk, and see what
you can achieve over on the second spare disk.

ddrescue is multi-pass.

Your first pass gets most of it. And builds a log file.
Read the log file with a text editor, to see how well
you are doing.

Subsequent runs consult the log file, to see what needs
to be done.

I personally prefer to "Zero" the Golden Clone,
before this sequence is carried out. Using
Windows "diskpart", the Clean All command achieves
the desired result, just before you switch to Linux
and do your ddrescue run(s). If the source disk is
actually good over the entire surface, it only
takes one pass with ddrescue, and the log file
should be almost empty (except for a title or
something in it - I don't remember what lines
were left in there).

Paul
  #9  
Old October 10th 17, 10:44 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
No_Name
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 30
Default Hopeless Data Recovery

On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 14:12:39 -0500, Char Jackson
wrote:

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.


Why is it that in a Windows newsgroup, it seems the only solution to
anything is to use Linux? I begin to wonder if this is some sort of
conspiracy, inspired by linux users who hate Windows, to make Windows
look bad. I only know one thing, if I had to use linux, I would have
quit using computers about 25 years ago. Everytime I have ever touched
any sort of linux, I have become physically ill from stresss and
frustration. About 4 years ago, I really committed myself to learning
linux. I spent about 6 weeks of hell with it, and finally arrived at the
point I was either going to smash my computer with a sledge hammer, or
simply format the hard drive I was using to remove any and all traces of
linux from my life. I chose the later.

Buying a $15 optical drive wont do anything except waste $15 and
probably another $30 worth of blank CDs to fill my garbage can.
Particularly when I cant even find a copy of ddrescue online that is in
some sort of useful format. Meaning that every download of it is in some
useless format called ".Tar". Why cant they use something normal like
..zip

I refuse to go back to the frustration of even attempting linux. I hate
it, and I'll repeat that. "I HATE LINUX". There is no reason that I
should come to a Windows newsgroup and be told that linux is my only
hope. If the only way to salvage this drive, is to use linux, I'll
rather do what a guy did on a youtube video called "Shoot your computer,
episode 1". (Worth watching).

I'm retitred and on a small fixed income. My electronics hobby/business
is my only outside source of income. Losing this data has put an end to
that business. I guess I should have printed all this to paper, since
it's apparent that computers are not reliable. Live and learn. Life is
full of hard lessons, and I guess I learned the hard way.


  #10  
Old October 11th 17, 01:01 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Char Jackson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,449
Default Hopeless Data Recovery

On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 16:44:25 -0500, wrote:

On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 14:12:39 -0500, Char Jackson
wrote:

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.


Why is it that in a Windows newsgroup, it seems the only solution to
anything is to use Linux?


It might seem like that's the case, but I don't think that's a fair
assessment. In the vast majority of cases, Windows has a decent
assortment of tools available to get things done. You very rarely have
to use a Linux tool.

It's just, for the particular thing that you're dealing with, there is
one particular tool that is head and shoulders above the rest, in my
opinion and the opinion of many others. That's ddrescue, because of the
way that it works. It's as gentle as possible with a damaged drive,
including a damaged filesystem, so as not to do even more damage. Most
other tools swing a hammer around and can possibly break stuff, but
ddrescue takes a do-no-harm approach of trying to make a first
sequential pass across the partition to read what can be read, then only
after that is completed does it go back and try to pick up what it
missed the first time. It doesn't sit there and hammer away at the drive
when there might still be readable data that hasn't been copied yet. As
far as I know, it really is the best tool for the job, and there's lots
of info online on how to get it and use it. I used it a while back, to
great success.

I begin to wonder if this is some sort of
conspiracy, inspired by linux users who hate Windows, to make Windows
look bad.


I'm sorry if it looks that way. We're just trying to help.

Do you have anyone local to you who'd be both knowledgeable and willing
to help? Sometimes two heads are better than one. I just hate to see you
give up and lose data, but if you really can't deal with even running a
single Linux program, then that's probably your fate. I'm not a Linux
fan either, but I was surprised at how easy ddrescue was and how
successful it was.

I'm retitred and on a small fixed income. My electronics hobby/business
is my only outside source of income. Losing this data has put an end to
that business. I guess I should have printed all this to paper, since
it's apparent that computers are not reliable. Live and learn. Life is
full of hard lessons, and I guess I learned the hard way.


If you can describe in a little more detail exactly what you had and
lost, maybe someone will come along and suggest a source for finding
replacements. If it's magazines, for example, what are the names and
issue numbers? The Internet is a big place, maybe someone else shares
your interests. If not here, then perhaps in one of the sci.electronics
groups or the epub groups. I'm just trying to throw a few things out
there.

--

Char Jackson
  #11  
Old October 11th 17, 02:13 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default Hopeless Data Recovery

wrote:
On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 14:12:39 -0500, Char Jackson
wrote:

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.


Why is it that in a Windows newsgroup, it seems the only solution to
anything is to use Linux?


I found mention of ddrescue, on the TestDisk site (where the program
is available on Windows and Linux). "Leads" for software can take
you just about anywhere.

As an example, I was working on a problem that required me using
Imagemagick. While I was reading the application section some guy wrote,
he happened to include a paragraph about a competing (free) product!
And how you could use that tool, to do the job better than the
section of the manual he was writing. For that one, a Google search
didn't get me there - it was a pure accident. It you want to use
tools you discover that way, you have to be flexible about
your environments.

Can you restrict yourself to a subset of the computing world ?
Of course you can. Windows has utilities that will tolerate
a bad sector. But, will those same utilities do multiple passes,
to try to build the most complete image possible ? The answer is
no. And in some cases, the commercial software actually *lied*
about the capability they have, and as soon as you hit a bad
sector, the product stops dead. So if you want to test a half
dozen of them, and get a bruise on your forehead, go right
ahead.

*******

Here's a compromise lead for you.

https://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-announc.../msg00087.html

"Christian Franke
23 Mar 2016

The following packages have been uploaded to the Cygwin distribution:

* ddrescue-1.21-1
"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygwin

"Developer(s) Cygnus Solutions, Red Hat, others

https://cygwin.com/install.html

(There is a setup you can run...)

That's an environment that installs in Windows. Using
a list of programs, it first downloads a default set of
stuff. And you can also select individual programs. You
use a symbol in the GUI, that rotates and opens up
more stuff (I missed that the first time I used it
and couldn't figure out how to get the program I wanted).

Now, on the one hand, I just said the word "environment",
which smacks of "learning curve". But, if you grab
ddrescue.exe plus two Cygwin DLL files used by all
the Cygwin programs, you get a "portable tool".
You can then "ignore" the Cygwin tree that just
downloaded.

So after obtaining ddrescue.exe and the two
DLLs, you can put them in a separate folder, and
you can delete or uninstall the entire Cygwin tree.

I have a tool called disktype, which will identify
file systems on optical discs or hard drives. I keep
a folder with these three files in it, and this is a
portable environment.

disktype.exe 143 KB
cyggcc_s-1.dll 102 KB
cygwin1.dll 3200 KB

I run disktype from the command prompt.

cd C:/path/to/folder/with/disktype/and/the/ISO

disktype some.iso

and it tells me whether the ISO is El Torito, Hybrid, and so on.

The ddrescue would be the same idea. An EXE. And you dig up
the two Cygwin DLLs and your "kit" should be ready to run.

In the above discussion thread, notice the person doing the
port "has changed a few command line arguments". Don't forget
to find the manual page so you have a reference. Using
"ddrescue -h" will probably list the help, but having a
manual page doesn't hurt.

Does that port work ? I hope so. But I haven't tested it.
I'd probably just fire up a Windows VM and do my Cygwin in
there, then collect the giblets I need for some task and
store them in the real Windows.

Paul
  #12  
Old October 11th 17, 09:37 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
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Paul wrote:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygwin


That turned out to be harder than it needed to be.

The idea was, you use the "setup.exe" to populate
a C:\cygwin directory with stuff.

It looks like a year ago, they decided to drop support
for WinXP. If you want Cygwin on a WinXP machine now,
the recipe is here.

http://www.crouchingtigerhiddenfruit...wintimemachine

The setup.exe files for the WinXP version are here.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160728...://cygwin.com/

"Install it by running setup-x86.exe (32-bit installation)
or setup-x86_64.exe (64-bit installation)."

When you download that, you do this in a Command Prompt.

setup-x86.exe -X

and on any future invocation of the setup (like if you need
to download another package of software later), you do this again
in a Command Prompt window

setup-x86.exe -X

The Time Machine page gives a URL that goes into the
mirror site dialog, pointing the installer at the
(private) web server with repository on it.

*******

If you wanted to install Cygwin for an OS later than
WinXP, you follow the instructions on the Cygwin site.

http://www.cygwin.com/

I got the WinXP ddrescue package installed. I made a couple
fake disk drives in a virtual machine and tested it.
This is my fake environment

disk 1 WinXP SP3 x32 /dev/sda
disk 2 blank 1GB disk drive /dev/sdb
disk 3 blank 1GB disk drive /dev/sdc

And in Disk Management, they're listed in that order too.

This is the content of the logfile (aka mapfile) after
a successful (single) run. Since my fake disks don't
have CRC errors, it's not possible to test that the program
works with damaged disks.

This is my sdb.log file, after the run. If the source
disk (sdb) had CRC errors, then additional lines in this
file would say "it hasn't copied them yet". And a second
or subsequent pass would be required.

# Mapfile. Created by GNU ddrescue version 1.21
#
# Command line: ddrescue -b8M --force /dev/sdb /dev/sdc sdb.log
#
# Start time: 2017-10-11 00:31:52
# Current time: 2017-10-11 00:32:17
# Finished
# current_pos current_status
0x3FE56C00 +
# pos size status
0x00000000 0x3FFC0000 +

The actual "device" size is 1,073,479,680 bytes.
In hex that is 0x3FFC0000. So it looks like the last
line in the log file, shows the job as completed.

I don't know what the "current_pos" means. It's
2890 sectors from the end.

Paul
  #13  
Old October 11th 17, 10:08 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
No_Name
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Posts: 30
Default Hopeless Data Recovery

On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 17:16:20 -0400, Paul wrote:

I'm sure he'll get SysRescue running now.


I'm sure I wont. I tried Yumi, Rufus, and a newer version of Unetbootin.
I tried a 2gb flash drive, as well as a 8gb and a BRAND NEW 64gb.
Regardless, the computer begins to boot from the USB drive, shows a list
of my PCI stuff, and freezes up forever.

One HUGE question ??????

Does Sysrescuecd contain ddrescue and everything else needed to perform
this dreaded surgery?

If it dont, why am I messing with it?

If it does, I found a place linked from Distrowatch, which will sell CDs
with pretty much any linux distro. They have Sysrescuecd for $2.95 plus
$2.65 shipping. Before I even consider buying a Cd burner, and trying to
burn Cds (which generally fails for me), I'll just buy the flipping CD
ready to use.

Of course, I suppose I'm still stuck with the linux command line
(terminal) nightmares. Maybe I can get the help of someone at a nearby
computer repair shop to use it. I dont feel confident at all trying to
do this or any linux command line stuff on my own. And this is a rural
farm community. There is no one around here who knows beans about
computers. Most of the old farmers wont even touch a computer and the
younger ones use their smartphone for the internet and probably never
leave facebook.

This is my last resort. I have a large 20lb sledge hammer just waiting
to smash that hard drive. I dont even care about my data anymore. This
is now going on two weeks of frustration, and has cost me close to $130
for new hard drives, backup drives, flash drives cables, and other crap,
not to mention over 60 hours of my time. It's beyond saving data, it's
now a matter of saving my nerves and mental condition.


  #14  
Old October 11th 17, 10:21 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
No_Name
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Posts: 30
Default Hopeless Data Recovery

On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 19:01:30 -0500, Char Jackson
wrote:

I'm sorry if it looks that way. We're just trying to help.

I know you are, but some of you are way too advanced and I dont
understand anything being said. I am a layman and an idiot when it comes
to linux. But I have built several computers and know how to handle the
older Windows and dos operating systems quite well.

Do you have anyone local to you who'd be both knowledgeable and willing
to help? Sometimes two heads are better than one. I just hate to see you
give up and lose data, but if you really can't deal with even running a
single Linux program, then that's probably your fate. I'm not a Linux
fan either, but I was surprised at how easy ddrescue was and how
successful it was.


Unfortunately, this is a rural farm community. I have no one to help.
People often ask me to help them with their computers. I usually refuse,
unless it's a desktop with some obvious hardware problem.

If I can buy it on a CD, I may give it a try. But I may ask you for help
with those dreaded command lines. This will likely be my last try at
saving this data. I have a farm to run and other stuff to do, and no
goddamn computer is going to control my life.

  #15  
Old October 11th 17, 10:24 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
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Posts: 11,873
Default Hopeless Data Recovery

wrote:
On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 17:16:20 -0400, Paul wrote:

I'm sure he'll get SysRescue running now.


I'm sure I wont. I tried Yumi, Rufus, and a newer version of Unetbootin.
I tried a 2gb flash drive, as well as a 8gb and a BRAND NEW 64gb.
Regardless, the computer begins to boot from the USB drive, shows a list
of my PCI stuff, and freezes up forever.

One HUGE question ??????

Does Sysrescuecd contain ddrescue and everything else needed to perform
this dreaded surgery?


Sysrescuecd has ddrescue.

You don't even need to learn how to open a Package Manager. Lucky you.

You click the terminal button at the bottom of the screen.
It opens what looks like a command prompt.

I think in my other post, I indicated the user is root in
that window, so you won't even need to use "sudo" like the
mother-may-I of computing. Just typing the command should work.
You can type this, to figure out the account being used.

whoami

I don't understand why your computer is being a bitch,
but I'll hazard a guess. That stinking drive of yours
is freezing it up :-) If these are IDE drives, make
sure they're jumpered properly (master/slave for the
pair on an IDE cable, or cableselect/cableselect if
you're using an 80 wire cable).

I would:

1) Shut down.
2) Unplug all hard drives, keeping track of where
they were connected. You want to put them back
where they were.
3) Boot your Rufus-prepared USB flash drive.
See if SysRescue comes up with no hard drive connected.
4) Select shutdown from the menu in SysRescue, then
cable up a pair of drives. Retest.
Cable up the second IDE cable with its drive or whatever.
Retest.

See if it's the drive that is fouling up your boot.

Linux will "sniff" each drive and use the ID function
during boot, at a minimum. Even if the distro is not
trying to auto-mount something, it'll still want to
sniff each one anyway. So it can draw icons on the
screen for you to click.

Paul

 




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