I hope there wasn't important stuff on there.

There is a tool similar to dd that is optimized for drives with errors. I can't remember the name at the moment. I'd first use that to make an image of the drive.

dd_rescue might be what you're looking for in recovering what data you can from your drive. ( http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/ )

i've used it many many times in the past to image a failing HDD to a new and functioning HDD to assess what damage there is to a filesystem. many times, if you've caught the problem soon enough, some repair operations can be performed on the filesystem and the majority of the data will be there and intact. you can also dump the block device out to an .img file.

i've found dd_rescue to be reliable in just about 95% of my data recovery scenarios. in fact, i've enough faith in it that if i can't get data from a failed or failing drive, more advanced recovery techniques will be your only other option, such as a data recovery service that uses specialized rooms and equipment costing thousands of dollars for said service. another scenario would be a failed controller, whereby you'd need another HDD of the same model that you could remove the controller and solder it in, in place of the old failed/failing controller.

it's also a good idea to keep the failing drive as cool/cold as possible, to lessen the chances of the drive overheating and timing out, causing your recovery attempt to fail.

good luck with your recovery attempt and may the data deities rain their favor down upon you.

<edit>:if you have access to a system running windows(even a VM that you can pass the USB HDD to), try and see how windows behaves interfacing with the device. you "might" get lucky and be able to run chkdsk on it and read it from windows and recover your data that way.

Last edited by iwantlinuxgames on 1 July 2023 at 11:47 am UTC

Quoting: iwantlinuxgames<edit>:if you have access to a system running windows(even a VM that you can pass the USB HDD to), try and see how windows behaves interfacing with the device. you "might" get lucky and be able to run chkdsk on it and read it from windows and recover your data that way.

Definitely, but image first to be on the safe side.

Testdisk is the classic tool for this kind of issues.

Last edited by Cyril on 1 July 2023 at 1:32 pm UTC

If you're going to take an image, or run data recovery software (e.g. NTFS data recovery on a Windows box) you should get the drive out of the USB enclosure (assuming it's SATA and not hard wired to the USB interface)

You will have better luck without timeouts on the USB bus and stuff. An extra layer of communication you don't need.

Thanks to BlackBloodRum doing some Tech Support over Steam he got the HDD working again........

My porn..... Game roms are saved.....

Quoting: StoneColdSpiderThanks to BlackBloodRum doing some Tech Support over Steam he got the HDD working again........

My porn..... Game roms are saved.....

Backup time!

Quoting: whizseBackup time!

I have spent the last 13 hours doing just that...... No joke......

I fixed up a customer with an external drive so he could do backups. He didn't have a ton of hard disk space, so he thought he was smart. Why not just STORE all the photos, videos and music on the external. This was back in the Windows 98 computer upgraded to Windows XP days.

Well, the drive in that unit failed so hard I couldn't access it at all. I tried tapping it, I even tried putting it in a freezer bag in the freezer, as the old wives tale goes (I think there probably are situations where you can get it to spin up like that if it's a bearing problem or similar but most of the time it does no good). Those were IDE ATA ("PATA" nowadays) drives in those units back then. Inside that thing was a... Maxtor hard drive, ubiquitous (bane of my soul!) then.

The man lost everything, moreover, it wasn't just for himself. The most significant thing were the family photos, from when the kids were younger and stuff (he still had his documents and designs on his computer). He wasn't a stupid guy, his thrift just got the better of him, and... it's his "back up hard drive" what could be safer than that? I suggested professional data recovery $ervices as there was a possibility the platters might have been OK (but also possibly not, if it was head crash and stiction preventing spinup) but he wasn't game for that.

... and the moral of the story is, piss off Grogan. (nobody needs to be reminded admonishingly lol)