I tried knoppix.. but couldn't get to the GUI. The command line seems overwhelming.

Knoppix also got hung up.

the following was the messge -

Decompressing Linux.. Parsing ELF.. Done
Booting the Kernal..

The whole system got hanged.

What about windows?

Hello rng

Iäm now logged in from knoppix. I did a big mistake while downloading Knoppix iso file. i had downloaded the deutch version instead of the english. All keyboard controls are jumbled now.So i have kept a english iso file for download.

Meanwhile , could u help me how to obtain dd(underscore)rescue from the knoppix terminal ? Couldnt find anything from the net.

You can get ddrescue of GNU from here: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ddrescue/

And dd_rescue from here: http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/

The GNU version is generally preferred by linux experts, but re-read unSpawns instructions again about using ddrescue (GNU) or dd_rescue

Also try following commands to see if ddrescue or dd_rescue is already installed:

man ddrescue
ddrescue --help
ddrescue -h

Similar commands to check if dd_rescue is installed and available.

Thank you rng for the suggestions you have been giving over weeks. Being a newcomer, i reallz appreciate it.

Info re both ddrescue and dd_rescue: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Damag...27dd_rescue.27

From above page:
The best solution - both faster and more efficient - seems to be Antonio Diaz's 'ddrescue' (ddrescue): http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/ddrescue/
# download ddrescue
wget http://download.savannah.gnu.org/rel...ue-1.8.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
-----------------------

Other links:

similar case of data recovery with ddrescue and testdisk: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...rescue-750209/

dd_rescue example: http://paulski.com/zpages.php?id=1913

running ddrescue on knoppix: http://forums.overclockers.com.au/sh...d.php?t=760520

using ddrescue for ntfs data recovery: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=284264

i just ran dd_rescue in knoppix.

Did the first step as told by UnSpawn - fdisk -l

It is only showing sda and its partitions. Knoppix did not detect sdb.

Requesting help regarding as to what I should do next.. !!

What is your opinion about going forward with command lines given by unSpawn (eventhough sdb has not shown up) ?

Check in knoppix whether you are root by the command: whoami
You should be root for most system tasks.

Check whether /dev/sdb exists in your system by the command: ls -l /dev/sd*

If sdb exists then I think you can proceed. (The disk does not have to be mounted for ddrescue to work).

I like following commands from the page I mentioned; these are simpler:

# 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

Try them if command given by unSpawn does not work. But in above commands a clean disk (new_disk) should be available. In your case the defective disk may be sdb (old_disk) and you will have to have a new disk (may be a flash drive or external hard disk) which may be sdc. So the first command will become:
./ddrescue -n /dev/sdb /dev/sdc rescued.log

This thread is in software section, where most users are not looking for recovery problems. You may put a new thread in general section, giving link to this thread- so that more users/experts can see and help you.

I switched to root user and did fdisk -l but yet the sdb disk is not being detected.After all the purchases and setup, will everything be in vain ? Please give your valuable suggestion.
Also the disk was detected by BIOS.

I have also posted a link to the thread in Linux General as advised by rng.

[QUOTE=rng;4519819]

I checked it found the sdb listed.Thanks a lot rng. I´m goinf forward with the other commands.

The sdb wasn´t listed but on checking with ls command got the sdb listed.



done

Got the following error -

tail: "/ tail" can not be opened for reading: No such file or directory
tail: "/ var / log / messages" can not be opened for reading: No such file or directory


shall I proceed with dd_rescue ?

Hello. This is the current progress displayed. Sorry for bloating the posts, but the attachment link was´t working. Iam worried about the succxfer and errxfer values..!!

Let dd_rescue finish and then see the size of file image.dd in /recovery directory.

Regarding tail: correct command should be: tail -f /var/log/messages

Some other useful links:

http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/arc.../t-129081.html

http://www.ki.nu/software/.pkgsrc/at...-result-sample

http://codeidol.com/unix/knoppix/Rep...d-Hard-Drives/

http://www.debianadmin.com/recover-d...-dd_rhelp.html

Once image file is made:
to check: sudo fsck -y /mnt/hdb1/hda1_rescue.img
to mount recovered file: sudo mount -o loop /mnt/hdb1/hda1_rescue.img /mnt/rescued

But you are right that these values are of concern:
succxfer: 0.0k
+curr.rate: 0kB/s, avg.rate: 0kB/s, avg.load: 0.0%

I´m atttaching the latest update from the dd_rescue which has been running for more than 17 hours. It has onlz processed 483k size files out of which all are error and no success.

Anz suggestions on my next step ?

Attached Files

update2.txt (59.9 KB, 20 views)

It is obviously not working. I think you should interrupt it by control-C and try above mentioned commands which are simpler:

# 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

There is a program called dd_rhelp (see links above) which works thru ddrescue but has simpler commands. Go through the links given above and try. I have limited experience in this.