cgsecurity.org

https://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/manual/ddrescue_manual.html#Direct-disc-access


Thank you for the link. Yes, the ddrescue process is direct access enabled.

I have restarted the process, this time changing the usb ports & it seems to working at the moment @2024 kb/s. I am using the same ...

No - if you associate unmounting with no disk activity. If you measured it this way the rate should approach zero. The numbers of " read errors " should never decrease but this is not how the SMART attribute is labeled, it is the "read error rate".
That rate should not decrease due to an idling ...

I do not necessarily consider an increase of the "raw read errors" as harm to the drive.



The Raw Read Error rate was 235 before copying files & went up to 531 after Testdisk completed the copying. Is that ok? Shouldn't unmounting a drive reduce the read errors (if not at all)?

Yes, ddrescue ...

Thank you for your response @cgrenier.

Copying the most important files is what I intend to do..as ddrescue is hanging with the drive being in 'D' state for hours, creating an image is becoming difficult.

I wanted to know whether Testdisk will cause more harm to the drive (like increasing the raw ...

Hello,

I have a 4tb portable external WD drive that has bad sectors & I have attempted to make an image of the drive with ddrescue-GUI. Unfortunately, the process has been attempted thrice with ddrescue-GUI stalling or not making any progress for +15 hours. Testdisk reads the drive fine & can see ...