Recovering files from a notebook HDD

Using PhotoRec to recover lost data
Forum rules
When asking for technical support:
- Search for posts on the same topic before posting a new question.
- Give clear, specific information in the title of your post.
- Include as many details as you can, MOST POSTS WILL GET ONLY ONE OR TWO ANSWERS.
- Post a follow up with a "Thank you" or "This worked!"
- When you learn something, use that knowledge to HELP ANOTHER USER LATER.
Before posting, please read https://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.pdf
Locked
Message
Author
quetzalin
Posts: 1
Joined: 08 Jul 2013, 14:09

Recovering files from a notebook HDD

#1 Post by quetzalin »

Hello!,

I'm here to ask for tips and to know if the process i'm doing is right.

The netbook fell to the ground while it was powered on, since then the HDD looks dead. I got the netbook hdd plugged into my computer, it's being recognized but from what i can see SMART reports a lot of errors and of course u can not access to it.

My goal is to recover as many files as i can (pictures mostly) or even repair the whole thing.

At the moment i'm running a ddrescue using another hdd i have (the original one is 250GB and mine is 500GB).
The command i'm using is ddrescue -f -n -R /dev/hda /dev/hdb logfile , it has been running for 3 days already and it says 173GB has been rescued so far with 183MB of error size.

Now, the first question and something that bugs me is i was able to mount the hdb and it still has my old files!, how is that possible? shouldn't they be destroyed already?.

As soon as this ends i'm going to run the next command: ddrescue -d -f -R -r3 /dev/hda /dev/hdb logfile and finally try to recover using testdisk or photorec.

I have been thinking on starting over and using an image file instead of trying to do a disc-disc copy as im doing at the moment.

So what do u think / recommend?

Thanks a lot!

Locked