Taking data from an old laptop drive

[FinetalPies]

I'm on Windows 10, the drive I'm trying to recover files from was running Windows Vista. It was a SATA so I had no troubles hooking it up to my PC and while I could see it in Disk Management, it wasn't assigned a drive letter so I couldn't access it without initializing/formatting it, which would probably erase the data I was after.

I tried to read it using testdisk but it was giving errors that suggested the drive was damaged. (This isn't like, too surprising, the laptop stopped working at some point and HDD failure is as reasonable an explanation for that as any.)

DDRescue seems to be like, the tool I should be aiming to use but afaik the 73 page pdf doesn't include installation instructions for Windows.

I created a .dd image of the drive using testdisk (which took 34 hours) so that I can like, more easily work with the image instead of having to have a janky setup where a laptop drive is connected to my PC. But don't really know how to mount or extract or work with it at all. (I even have doubts that that process actually worked)

Oh also, the files I'm trying to recover are text files and not images, but I did try using photorec and the ETA for that process was over 400 hours so I opted to, not do that.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. It feels like I'm not trying to accomplish anything extraordinary.

[recuperation]

73 page pdf doesn't include installation instructions for Windows.

Which pdf file are you talking about?

[FinetalPies]

Oh sorry, I mean the one linked in forum rules
https://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.pdf

[recuperation]

DDRescue seems to be like, the tool I should be aiming to use but afaik the 73 page pdf doesn't include installation instructions for Windows.

It does not come as a surprise that people that use gamer speak "afaik" exhibit an extremely reduced attention span that prevents them from reading manuals, even reading the table of contents and a few lines of a chapter is too much for them.

This is sad.

[FinetalPies]

Whoa cool, I found one of those forums where being an asshole isn't against the rules. Now that's proper oldschool. (Like, 1990's IRC chat oldschool, which is when "afaik" first saw common usage... iirc)

Anyway yeah so on page 53 DDRescue's Windows installation instructions amount to "Use Linux", so before going through all that trouble (and expense if I follow the suggestions therein), does anyone have any inclination if I'm even pursuing the right track?

[recuperation]

Whoa cool, I found one of those forums where being an asshole isn't against the rules. Now that's proper oldschool. (Like, 1990's IRC chat oldschool, which is when "afaik" first saw common usage... iirc)

I don't understand your point.

Anyway yeah so on page 53 DDRescue's Windows installation instructions amount to "Use Linux", so before going through all that trouble (and expense if I follow the suggestions therein), does anyone have any inclination if I'm even pursuing the right track?

Here in Germany we drive on the right lane. Depending on your location you might be required to drive on the left one.
I tell you so because you are supposed to ask precise questions.

I created a .dd image of the drive using testdisk (which took 34 hours) so that I can like, more easily work with the image instead of having to have a janky setup where a laptop drive is connected to my PC.

Your reasoning is right. But the use of the image function of Testdisk with dammaged drives is risky and not recommended.

But don't really know how to mount or extract or work with it at all. (I even have doubts that that process actually worked)

What is it that prevents you from refusing to read even few lines? Testdisk told you what to do when duplicating your drive!
The following dialogue was visible for 34 hours on your computer screen before it changed after completion of the duplication process.
I reproduced the dialogue by creating a duplicating a USB stick with a size of 1 GB.

Testdisk_image creation progress monitor.png (23.43 KiB) Viewed 3129 times

[FinetalPies]

Right thank you I forgot to mention that "'testdisk' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file." (I don't really understand the obsession with this edge of the internet's insistence that "Oh yeah just run it in terminal" is an effective way to program something or give advice.)

I assume that means I'd need to add it to path or whatever but more pressingly the .dd file is 0 bytes, so I can only guess that the image creation process didn't work because of the damage. That makes sense considering what you said.

I guess the next phase of my plan is making a partition to run Linux to try DDRescue, though I still haven't seen any assurance anywhere that that would like, work or accomplish anything. (Maybe because nobody on the internet has asked questions precisely enough.) Whenever I get around to that I'll let y'all know how it went.

[recuperation]

Right thank you I forgot to mention that "'testdisk' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file."

Am I too much of a nerd to be allowed to say it is obvious? If I unpack an archive with a testdisk_win.exe file inside to some location in my drive universe, how should the operating system know it is there? The operating system would need to index everything which is not the case.

(I don't really understand the obsession with this edge of the internet's insistence that "Oh yeah just run it in terminal" is an effective way to program something or give advice.)

Unfortunately you belong to the minority of Testdisk users who don't know how to use the command line. Until now there was one person like you in all of the postings I was answering too.
As for effective ways of programming, Testdisk is working cross-platform on
DOS (either real or in a Windows 9x DOS-box),
Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP, Windows Server 2016/2012/2008/2003
Linux,
FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD,
SunOS and
MacOS X

Please name any other recovery program that is maintained over such a range of operating systems which is open source, free and widespread over the planet. Furthermore the command line doesn't eat up computer resources. It comes at a price of convenience. But you are free to use (buy) any commercial solution for your recovery problem (Which one by the way is able to do minor repairs instead of only recovering?!).

Here a German saying for you: "Dem geschenkten Gaul schaut man nicht in's Maul." That translates into:
"You don't look into the mouth of a horse that you get as a present."

But if you look into the license of Testdisk, you are free to build a beautiful graphical user interface for Testdisk and of course you are invited to do so to make Testdisk even greater!

I assume that means I'd need to add it to path or whatever but more pressingly the .dd file is 0 bytes, so I can only guess that the image creation process didn't work because of the damage.

You stated "I created a .dd image of the drive using testdisk (which took 34 hours) " but you did not check the result nor you bothered to say that your disk image has a length of zero bytes?

That makes sense considering what you said.

I guess the next phase of my plan is making a partition to run Linux to try DDRescue,

There is no interest for you in putting your drive at risk trying to install linux. If you had looked into the manual you would have seen the recommendation of booting linux from a USB stick that is running Fedora for example.

though I still haven't seen any assurance anywhere that that would like, work or accomplish anything.

This is so true! You are risking hours of your lifetime without a guarantee of success. At least you are not asking me about a probability of success.

(Maybe because nobody on the internet has asked questions precisely enough.)

Not initially reporting the zero byte output of your 34 hours recovery efforts is really bad.