Lazarus
Miscellaneous => Other => Topic started by: eljo on February 14, 2020, 03:10:42 am
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Sorry for the OT thread but I'm I do not have a clear head to think straight at the moment.
My external 2TB usb disk just crashed, most times windows can not recognize the partition let alone the file system or the data. a quick check show a batload of bad sectors I'm hearing its heads knocking around in the disk every time I connect it to the computer.
Any way I'm thinking on starting a rescue process using winhex or some other disk editor. Before I start a multi month journey through hell is any one aware of a good disk rescue app?
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Sorry for the OT thread but I'm I do not have a clear head to think straight at the moment.
My external 2TB usb disk just crashed, most times windows can not recognize the partition let alone the file system or the data. a quick check show a batload of bad sectors I'm hearing its heads knocking around in the disk every time I connect it to the computer.
Any way I'm thinking on starting a rescue process using winhex or some other disk editor. Before I start a multi month journey through hell is any one aware of a good disk rescue app?
If your data is important, do yourself a favor and pay for a professional service.
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Hi!
There is an unimpressive tool which is the best of all.
It is just called testdisk.
There are versions for nearly all Operating systems.
It recovers damaged file system, deleted files and I did astonishing repairs with it:
* I recovered an external HD with 360 GB of music, where the directory was not only deleted but overwritten with zeros. With Apple filesystem.
* I recovered 85% of a Laptop HD. The Laptop fell down while writing to the HD: One big unreadable scratch all over the HD. But I recovered even half pictures.
If Windows does not recognize the HD anymore, then start Linux from CD, use the Linux version of testdisk, which even works when the Partition table is lost.
Download it from here:
https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download (https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download)
Good luck
Winni
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Sorry for the OT thread but I'm I do not have a clear head to think straight at the moment.
My external 2TB usb disk just crashed, most times windows can not recognize the partition let alone the file system or the data. a quick check show a batload of bad sectors I'm hearing its heads knocking around in the disk every time I connect it to the computer.
Any way I'm thinking on starting a rescue process using winhex or some other disk editor. Before I start a multi month journey through hell is any one aware of a good disk rescue app?
If your data is important, do yourself a favor and pay for a professional service.
Yes the best TestDisk application. under linux it works better than from windows. Well, for starters, I would take apart the external drive and replace the usb controller board. I met such a breakdown. The problem was exactly in the adapter board.
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There is an unimpressive tool which is the best of all.
It is just called testdisk.
It recovers damaged file system, deleted files and I did astonishing repairs with it:
Testdisk can be used for recovery, but should only be used after you have copied the data to a safe place. I.E. don't try to use Testdisk on failing hardware.
To get the data copied off the drive, you can try ddrescue.
Manual:
https://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/manual/ddrescue_manual.html
https://www.google.com/search?q=ddrescue+recover+bad+sectors
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My personal suggestion would be HDClone (https://www.miray-software.com/products/applications/hdclone.html) from Miray Software AG (Disclaimer: I work there, but this also provides me with the necessary insight). It works on Windows and in a self-booting variant (both with a custom operating system and an embedded Linux (the later requires the Professional Edition however)). When imaging/cloning it skips over bad sectors and returns in a second run to copy as much as possible (SafeRescue, contained in Basic Edition and higher). However - to be fair - for a disk that already generates errors it might be the best to use the Professional Edition as that includes the BitImage and/or BitCopy modes. Though it could also work with the normal FullImage/FullCopy modes that are contained in lower editions (I won't suggest SmartImage/SmartCopy in this case).
Whatever you decide for, don't put the disk on too much stress. Don't boot from it (if it contains the operating system), but clone/image it from another system. Try to do a complete imaging of it (be it with HDClone or DDRescue or whatever) and then try to recover your files using that. Do not do a file based rescue as that will lead to many random accesses. A linear read is the safest bet!
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Another suggestion: buy a NAS (RAID 1: if one of the two disks fails, your data are still accessible on the other one). Nevertheless, create regular DVD backups too, because the disk controller of a NAS can also fail...
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If you are hearing clicks of death then most probably electronics is dying. Your best bet is to find exact same disk and salvage electronics from it and move it to your disk. That is not a job for everyone.
As for software that can help you with extracting your files, R-Studio is one of the good ones.
If your data is really valuable, then let a professional handle it. With clumsy attempts to save your data, you are further and further away from actually doing it.
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I would like to thank everyone that responded. All the advice is valuable to me so let me address them one by one
If your data is important, do yourself a favor and pay for a professional service.
My data is important to me and to me alone in the sense that I had some long components that can no longer be found on the net or the market including a complete set of swag libraries but other than the sentimental value and the prospect of porting some of them to lazarus as a learning aid and future use they are for all intents and purposes not usable.
Hi!
There is an unimpressive tool which is the best of all.
It is just called testdisk.
Noted I have downloaded and I will evaluate it in time thank you. Fingers crossed luck will be on my side.
Sorry for the OT thread but I'm I do not have a clear head to think straight at the moment.
My external 2TB usb disk just crashed, most times windows can not recognize the partition let alone the file system or the data. a quick check show a batload of bad sectors I'm hearing its heads knocking around in the disk every time I connect it to the computer.
Any way I'm thinking on starting a rescue process using winhex or some other disk editor. Before I start a multi month journey through hell is any one aware of a good disk rescue app?
If your data is important, do yourself a favor and pay for a professional service.
I would take apart the external drive and replace the usb controller board. I met such a breakdown. The problem was exactly in the adapter board.
Good idea, never occurred to me to try and use some other kind of usb bridge hardware. The problem is that I bought the drive in August so it is still under guaranty so I'm debating if its more valuable for me to get a replacement or to get as much of the data back (data back is ahead at this time). I have a couple more crashed external usb drive I might mix and much and see what happens.
Fingers crossed.
Another suggestion: buy a NAS (RAID 1: if one of the two disks fails, your data are still accessible on the other one). Nevertheless, create regular DVD backups too, because the disk controller of a NAS can also fail...
Sadly that is my current state of mind as well. from 6 external USB drives in the last 10 years I had 100% loss of them. On the other I had no usb flash crash on me yet I still have a 128mb flash for 2000~2004 times that works with out problems (granted I haven't written on it for a long time, I access its data recently.)Hopefully a raid 1 nas will give me a better life time and chance for recovery.
If you are hearing clicks of death then most probably electronics is dying. Your best bet is to find exact same disk and salvage electronics from it and move it to your disk. That is not a job for everyone.
That's my guess to. The infuriating thing is that the disk was connected on my desktop and I never moved it or unplugged it. Well I do restart my computer once a month usually so I have no idea why it failed and as a home gamer on electronics that sounds like a fan challenge too, if I do not decide to take advantage of the warranty.
As for software that can help you with extracting your files, R-Studio is one of the good ones.
Noted, and thank you.
My personal suggestion would be HDClone (https://www.miray-software.com/products/applications/hdclone.html) from Miray Software AG (Disclaimer: I work there, but this also provides me with the necessary insight). It works on Windows and in a self-booting variant (both with a custom operating system and an embedded Linux (the later requires the Professional Edition however)). When imaging/cloning it skips over bad sectors and returns in a second run to copy as much as possible (SafeRescue, contained in Basic Edition and higher). However - to be fair - for a disk that already generates errors it might be the best to use the Professional Edition as that includes the BitImage and/or BitCopy modes. Though it could also work with the normal FullImage/FullCopy modes that are contained in lower editions (I won't suggest SmartImage/SmartCopy in this case).
Whatever you decide for, don't put the disk on too much stress. Don't boot from it (if it contains the operating system), but clone/image it from another system. Try to do a complete imaging of it (be it with HDClone or DDRescue or whatever) and then try to recover your files using that. Do not do a file based rescue as that will lead to many random accesses. A linear read is the safest bet!
I do not keep an extra 2TB disk around unused just in case of a crash so its going to be impossible for me to follow some of your advice but in all fairness I understand some of the details you are hinting and I have unplugged the drive put it in a drawer for the time being until I buy a new disk/nas to try and even then, I do not think I'll be able to have it connected in the same motherboard with an other hard disk to try to copy the partition as is, I'm more interested in software that will allow me to read sectore by sector and allow me to fill in gaps if I can eg if the partition info is not read correctly I should be able to type in the missing fields and have the software continue on the assumption that they where read from the disk. The idea is to allow me to rescue files as much of the files data can be rescued so I can replace the missing pieces if I can later on.
I'll evaluate HDclone it sounds like a good tool to have in my toolbox but in my current situation I can not rescue a complete disk.
A big Thank you to all of you for your time and advice, if I don't send the disk back for replacement I'll try to post my results.
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My personal suggestion would be HDClone (https://www.miray-software.com/products/applications/hdclone.html) from Miray Software AG (Disclaimer: I work there, but this also provides me with the necessary insight). It works on Windows and in a self-booting variant (both with a custom operating system and an embedded Linux (the later requires the Professional Edition however)). When imaging/cloning it skips over bad sectors and returns in a second run to copy as much as possible (SafeRescue, contained in Basic Edition and higher). However - to be fair - for a disk that already generates errors it might be the best to use the Professional Edition as that includes the BitImage and/or BitCopy modes. Though it could also work with the normal FullImage/FullCopy modes that are contained in lower editions (I won't suggest SmartImage/SmartCopy in this case).
Whatever you decide for, don't put the disk on too much stress. Don't boot from it (if it contains the operating system), but clone/image it from another system. Try to do a complete imaging of it (be it with HDClone or DDRescue or whatever) and then try to recover your files using that. Do not do a file based rescue as that will lead to many random accesses. A linear read is the safest bet!
I do not keep an extra 2TB disk around unused just in case of a crash so its going to be impossible for me to follow some of your advice but in all fairness I understand some of the details you are hinting and I have unplugged the drive put it in a drawer for the time being until I buy a new disk/nas to try and even then, I do not think I'll be able to have it connected in the same motherboard with an other hard disk to try to copy the partition as is, I'm more interested in software that will allow me to read sectore by sector and allow me to fill in gaps if I can eg if the partition info is not read correctly I should be able to type in the missing fields and have the software continue on the assumption that they where read from the disk. The idea is to allow me to rescue files as much of the files data can be rescued so I can replace the missing pieces if I can later on.
That's a further reason to do a complete clone or image of the disk. You can then play around with the image or clone to recover as much of your data as possible without putting the original under further stress (e.g. assuming the partition table is broken and you'd fix it on the original disk then the partition detection of the operating system starts piecing together the file system structures thus essentially leading to random seeks on the damaged disks).
To highlight another feature that HDClone provides (I know this sounds like advertising, but for your case it is indeed useful): when you create an image you can "mount" it on Windows using Miray Virtual Disk and then you can edit the disk (e.g. with a hex editor), but the changes will be applied to a so called "overlay", meaning that the original is untouched, but what the OS sees is the combination of the original image and the overlay sectors.
Of course you'd still need to a disk to clone/image your disk to. Though depending on the amount of data you have on your original disk, enabling compression in HDClone may lead to a much smaller image while still containing all sectors that could be successfully read.
And once you have an image you could try a software like GetDataBack (https://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm) (this time not affiliated, though I used it successfully in the past ;) ) to recover your data without having to manually fiddle with the file system (cause file systems are rather complex).
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Hi!
For backups I use CloneZilla https://clonezilla.org/ (https://clonezilla.org/)
You also can clone machines with it.
It is OS independent because it comes with its own Linux - you start CloneZilla from USB stick or CD.
Works without any problems until now since some years. And cloned a lot of machine with it.
Despite their own restrictions you can even clone if the destination HD is smaler than the source. Little bit tricky.
For those who have to clone not only one but a lot of machines: Now there is a CloneZilla server for cloning up to 40 machines at the same time.
The only bug I detected was a funny one: in the language menu they mixed up "dutch" and "deutsch". Made in Taiwan - Europe is far, far away.
Winni
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In regards to the advise to buy a NAS (or similiar):
This weekend i was busy setting up the server for a club i'm a member of.
The general purpose of the server is as file-server as well as backup (not really that much terrifying Gigabytes though).
What i found out: get an old rust-bucket of a PC (say, 5-6 years old) for small money (in Germany you get them for under 100 €, or even for free, when there are companies exchanging their hardware), get some Harddisks (i was lucky to get 5 WD-Harddisks of the same size, and even the same model/make).
Install FreeBSD as an OS (ZFS-on-root) and the other disks (as many as can fit the PC and/or controller), and install a ZFS mirrored pool.
And voila, your own homebuilt NAS.
Just export the Datasets as NFS (Samba on FreeBSD with ZFS is a can of worms, but it works), and you're done!
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In regards to the advise to buy a NAS (or similiar):
This weekend i was busy setting up the server for a club i'm a member of.
The general purpose of the server is as file-server as well as backup (not really that much terrifying Gigabytes though).
What i found out: get an old rust-bucket of a PC (say, 5-6 years old) for small money (in Germany you get them for under 100 €, or even for free, when there are companies exchanging their hardware), get some Harddisks (i was lucky to get 5 WD-Harddisks of the same size, and even the same model/make).
Install FreeBSD as an OS (ZFS-on-root) and the other disks (as many as can fit the PC and/or controller), and install a ZFS mirrored pool.
And voila, your own homebuilt NAS.
Just export the Datasets as NFS (Samba on FreeBSD with ZFS is a can of worms, but it works), and you're done!
thank you for your commendation but I don't know if its worth the trouble, for example
https://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-LinkStation-Private-Storage-Included/dp/B01MZBIX93
this comes with 2 4TB disks included at around 260, a 4TB disk goes for a average of 100. I'm still evaluating various solutions though.
That's a further reason to do a complete clone or image of the disk. You can then play around with the image or clone to recover as much of your data as possible without putting the original under further stress (e.g. assuming the partition table is broken and you'd fix it on the original disk then the partition detection of the operating system starts piecing together the file system structures thus essentially leading to random seeks on the damaged disks).
To highlight another feature that HDClone provides (I know this sounds like advertising, but for your case it is indeed useful): when you create an image you can "mount" it on Windows using Miray Virtual Disk and then you can edit the disk (e.g. with a hex editor), but the changes will be applied to a so called "overlay", meaning that the original is untouched, but what the OS sees is the combination of the original image and the overlay sectors.
Of course you'd still need to a disk to clone/image your disk to. Though depending on the amount of data you have on your original disk, enabling compression in HDClone may lead to a much smaller image while still containing all sectors that could be successfully read.
And once you have an image you could try a software like GetDataBack (https://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm) (this time not affiliated, though I used it successfully in the past ;) ) to recover your data without having to manually fiddle with the file system (cause file systems are rather complex).
Most desirable thank you. Just a quick question does it read from disk to file or does a sector to sector copy?
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Most desirable thank you. Just a quick question does it read from disk to file or does a sector to sector copy?
Do you mean HDClone or GetDataBack? For the former it's sector based (and it will do a linear read when cloning/imaging). The later I don't know. I only know that it scans through the disk, but I don't know if its then accessing the disk randomly (due to the found file system structures) or if it caches them. I'd anyway suggest to use that tool not on a dying disk, but only on an image to not damage the disk further.
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Most desirable thank you. Just a quick question does it read from disk to file or does a sector to sector copy?
Do you mean HDClone or GetDataBack? For the former it's sector based (and it will do a linear read when cloning/imaging). The later I don't know.
HDClone and I'm interested in its writing capabilites the reading is crystal clear what it does but does it require an empty disk to clone to with all the restrictions that might come from it or it can write the sectors in a file on a existing disk/file system allowing me to use any file system (nfs, online, or what ever) I so choose.
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HDClone can either do a copy to another disk or it can store a disk as an image file. Depending on the image type selected it will either contain all sectors of the disk (FullImage and BitImage (the later requires Professional Edition)) or only those that are in use (SmartImage (Standard Edition or higher)). To further decrease the amount of disk space required you can also enable compression (enabled by default).
Please note that the self booting variant of HDClone does not support network storages as of now. You need to store your images on a locally attached disk (be it P/S-ATA, NVMe or USB). Of course afterwards you can move the image whereever you want, though it needs to be on an accessible storage if you want to restore it again. For network storages you either need to use the Windows variant to access any network storage Windows supports or the Linux variant (requires Professional Edition) to access SMB/CIFS shares.
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thank you for your time it is appreciated very much.
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I just hope it helps. :-X