Re: [Bug-ddrescue] damaged hd onto a partition?

[Martin Bittermann]

Hello Antoni,

if your disk shows up in the device list (like /dev/sda), then Yes, 
ddrescue is the right tool for the job.
The drive might be unable to read the first sector(s), which contain the 
partition table. That would explain why you can't see your partitions.
However, if your OS does not even recognize the drive, ddrescue cannot 
access it and you're out of luck.

If you intend to use ddrescue, please use the current version, the one 
referred to in the cgsecurity article is >3yrs old.

for example:

# download ddrescue
wget http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/ddrescue/ddrescue-1.16.tar.lz
# extract the source code
lzip -d ddrescue-1.16.tar.lz
tar xf ddrescue-1.16.tar
# compile ddrescue
cd ddrescue-1.16
./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


If you succeed with the rescue, you can use Testdisk afterwards on a 
copy of the image, to restore the partition structure.

Good luck!