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Re: WD 2Tb External HDD You need to format the disk Error

Posted: 26 Sep 2012, 21:53
by Lito
I did try to download the Knoppix DVD iso, but without success. The University of Kent is apparently working with the servers (UK Mirror Service) and my download failed three times. Either the image is damaged or there is some other problem. I managed to download and burn the CD image of Knoppix, version 7.04, for testing.

1) Start by connecting all your disks, as you did before.
If your computer has got a switch to shut down the wireless internet connection, switch it off.
Get a ethernet cable to establish a connection, later on.
Boot from hte Knoppix CD. Wait for everything to finish loading.

Now connect your cable to establish a direct connection.
Knoppix will warn you that you have a connection.

Start a user shell (terminal).
type:
sudo -s
Now your root.
type
apt-get update

This will take a couple of minutes to complete
Next type:
apt-get install gddrescue

wait until the program finishes installing.
Now disconnect your cable. No more internet.

Check that you are still root (# symbol at the prompt).
Now issue your fdisk -l command, to see your disks and their order.
Next
ddrescue -n /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk rescued.log
next stage
ddrescue -r 1 /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk rescued.log

When this is finished, you are ready to run either Testdisk or Photorec, on the clone (new_disk).
Both are included in the Knoppix CD.
Is up to you now, to sort how or where to save your fliles.

One of the moderators, please check this to spot any step missing.

Re: WD 2Tb External HDD You need to format the disk Error

Posted: 29 Sep 2012, 01:40
by azahirr
Hi guys,

Before I start doing things, can I confirm the following? If I were to follow Antonio Diaz's ddrescue instructions as below, what should I replace the old_disk and new_disk name? Is the same as device name?

the from the screen shot, my device name are:

Damaged ExtHDD:
/dev/sdb1
/dev/sdb5

New ExtHDD:
/dev/sdc1

# download ddrescue
wget http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releas ... .8.tar.bz2
# extract the source code
tar xjf ddrescue-1.8.tar.bz2
# compile ddrescue
cd ddrescue-1.8
./configure && make
# first, grab most of the error-free areas in a hurry:
./ddrescue -n /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk rescued.log
# then try to recover as much of the dicy areas as possible:
./ddrescue -r 1 /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk rescued.log

Therefore, the command would be :
./ddrescue -n /dev/sdb1/ dev/sdc1rescued.log

./ddrescue -r 1 /dev/sdb1/ dev/sdc1rescued.log

But there are 2 device names from the damaged harddisk. Do I use sdb1 or sdb5? I'm confused.

Thanks a lot for the help. You guys have been awesome!

Re: WD 2Tb External HDD You need to format the disk Error

Posted: 29 Sep 2012, 09:54
by azahirr
Hi guys,

I tried using Clonezilla. It was easy to use but unfortunately, I have this error. See screenshot below.
Clonezilla1
Clonezilla1
clonezilla1.JPG (244.55 KiB) Viewed 5797 times
Clonezilla2
Clonezilla2
clonezilla2.JPG (241.31 KiB) Viewed 5797 times
Any suggestions guys?

Thanks so much again. And sorry to be such a pain. These technical stuff are too alien to me.

THanks again.

Re: WD 2Tb External HDD You need to format the disk Error

Posted: 30 Sep 2012, 05:51
by Lito
I think your actual drives are:
sda (good drive with a working Windows Vista system)

sdb (the drive that holds your precious data, but is damaged)

sdc (the new drive to which you would like to clone sdb)

sd1 and sdb5 are in the same device. They partitions made either by you or somebody else.

The same goes for sdc1, this is a partition that you made. By the way you do not need to have any partition in your good new drive to carry out the cloning. Most restoring tools work best when there is nothing in the drive. To restore Acronis images, for instance, not partition information or formatting is needed, otherwise Acronis trips over.

My suggestion (your free to follow what you feel is best) is:

fetch and burn MiniTool Partition Wizard (free home users bootable CD)

http://www.partitionwizard.com/download.html

Once you have a working CD, wipe your new drive to start afresh. It will take about 4 hours.

When you finish cleaning the drive, you should put the Knoppix CD in the tray.
Make sure all drives are connected as before. Double checking is good.
Then look a my previous post.
There is something missing.
When Knoppix gets to a stop and prompts for
boot:
here foolow the advise given in the relevant page, and type
knoppix lang=us
and then press enter
(please check that this is correct).
As for the rest of the commands I did try then, working from the same Knoppix CD (Version 7.0.4 english version), with disks attached to my machine. The only difference is that the disk i was cloning was not damaged and it was smaller.
Best of luck.

Re: WD 2Tb External HDD You need to format the disk Error

Posted: 06 Oct 2012, 07:37
by azahirr
Hi Lito,

Quick question. The new drive is brand new, out of the box and have not been used before. Should I still use the minipartition to wipe everything or it is ok to to do the cloning withouth using the minipartition?

Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it.

Re: WD 2Tb External HDD You need to format the disk Error

Posted: 06 Oct 2012, 09:39
by azahirr
Hi Lito,

Sorry for being so dumb.

I tried the ddrescue without using the minipartion since the target disk is new out of the box. But got this error instead.
ddrescue error
ddrescue error
066s.JPG (138.86 KiB) Viewed 5774 times
Should I go ahead and do a 'force' overwrite as suggested?

THanks a lot.

Re: WD 2Tb External HDD You need to format the disk Error

Posted: 06 Oct 2012, 13:18
by Lito
Do not overwrite. I think you have not completed the sequence of commands.
Your next command, looking at what you have already typed, should be:

ddrescue -r 1 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 rescued.log

this is to gather the actual data, with retry ( that's why the -r ) set to 1 (one time) when the programme finds a bad or damaged sector. This will complete the mechanical part of the task. The cloning. Hopefully with a total success.
Once this stage is completed you can exit the shell by typing:
exit
and then press enter. May be you will have to do twice.

Now is the time to disconnect your damaged disk and put it in safe place.

When you are ready to go to the next stage, you will call TestDisk by opening a user shell again:

sudo -s testdisk
then press enter to start.
Once you start TestDisk and you have logs to post, you will depend on the goodwill of the TestDisk experts in the forum.

Best of luck

Re: WD 2Tb External HDD You need to format the disk Error

Posted: 06 Oct 2012, 13:30
by dragonfly41
Do some reading first to understand what you are doing ..

http://dimitar.me/clone-disk-drives-with-ubuntu/

Same approach applies to knoppix.

try a few terminal commands in knoppix to understand the structure of your hardware

sudo lshw -C disk

sudo blkid

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda


the notation /dev/sda refers to internal drive ("dev" is short for device)

eg /dev/sda might have several partitions ..

/dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 /dev/sda3

and if you have external drives the notation for these is

/dev/sdb (1st external drive .. notation "b")
/dev/sdc (2nd external drive .. notation "c")

the number at the end is the partition number .. e,g. /dev/sdb1 is partition 1 in device

Perhaps use disk utility in knoppix to inspect your drives.

Re: WD 2Tb External HDD You need to format the disk Error

Posted: 06 Oct 2012, 13:47
by Lito
I never saw your message with the question about the Minipartition tool.
I am very sorry that i never answer because now we are talking at cross purposes.
I think you are forgetting the work you did with Clonezilla, with an apparent fail.
The purpose of getting hold of the MiniTool was to clean the new_disk to start afresh.
If the new_disk was brand new it would not be recognized as /sdc1 because the whole space would be unallocated.
Therefore it woul be simply be recognized as /sdc by fdisk -l (l for list).

Your first command would then be, taken for granted that you set yourself as root.

ddrescue -n /dev/old_disk /dev/new_disk rescued.log

where old_disk stands for /sdb
and new_disk stands for /sdc

/sdb1 is a partition within the old_disk (/sbb)
and /sdc1 a partition in the new_disk

Whether you would like to clean the new_disk or overwrite what is already there, is your call.
Wiping the new_disk clean does take many hours. But i think that it will result in a better job.
To make sure that you do not wipe your old_disk, you could disconnect it temporarily.

Best of luck

Re: WD 2Tb External HDD You need to format the disk Error

Posted: 07 Oct 2012, 08:59
by azahirr
Hi Lito, Dragonfly,

Thanks for your help.

The damaged disk showed two partitions.
/dev/sdb1
/dev/sdb5

The new disk only have 1 partition
/dev/sdc1

How do I type the ddrescue command? Is it like this?

ddrescue -n /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb5 /dev/sdc1 rescued.log

Sorry again. I'm a newbie when it comes to these Linuz stuff.

Thanks, guys.