[Bug-ddrescue] Reading the disk backward

[David Morrison]

Hello

In my other message, the disk seems to have a series of bad areas 
scattered across the disk. Because of the extended delays when 
ddrescue hits a bad spot, I have aborted it a few times, and told it 
to start again a GB further on. This unfortunately means that I am 
missing the good bits between the end of the bad area and where I 
tell it to start again.

For example, say the disk has a bad spot at 500M, and that bad spot 
is 20MB long. Using my method, I might stop it, then start again at 
1GB. This means that I am missing out on copying 480MB because I do 
not know that the bad spot is only 20MB long.

The earlier dd_rescue had the ability to read backwards, ie, I could 
have told it to start at 1GB, and read backward until it gets the the 
end of the bad area.

Is this possible in ddrescue? If not, could I suggest that it would 
be a really useful feature.

Thanks

David
--
David Morrison
PO Box 105, Cardiff, NSW 2285, Australia
David_Morrison at internode.on.net
Ph +61 2 49546164
IT Consulting and Support