Re: OT: dying disk - data recovery recommendations

["KS" <lists04@fastmail.fm>]

On Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:21:37 -0500, "Brian McKee" <map@map-heb.com>
said:
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> On 11-Jan-08, at 3:43 PM, KS wrote:
> > I connected the old hard disk via firewire to the powerbook and  
> > compiled
> > ddrescue to run on the G4 (new HDD and 10.4.11). It is just giving I/O
> > error in the syslog. I can't even be mounted. ddrescue has read 3MB in
> > the last half an hour and rescue zero bytes :(
> >
> > Any other suggestions?
> 
> Put the drive in a ziplock bag, removing as much air as possible and  
> toss it in the freezer.
> 
> Pull it back out after it's cold soaked (couple of hours?) and hook  
> it back up, leaving a freezer pack or something on top of it to help  
> keep it cold while you try again.
> 
> Obviously this is a last resort....  YMMV.... and if your cat demands  
> a raise after the operation I claim no responsibility.
> but I have had it work maybe twice in a over a half a dozen attempts  
> at similar problems.
> 
> Brian

Thanks for that advice. It seemed to have made a difference .... the
rescued data has changed from 0B to more than a 100kB. But there is more
than 6GB of data that matters. Below is the ddrescue status:

    Starting positions: infile = 0 B,  outfile = 0 B
    Copy block size: 128 hard blocks
Hard block size: 512 bytes
Max_retries: 0    
Direct: no    Sparse: no    Split: yes    Truncate: no

Press Ctrl-C to interrupt
Initial status (read from logfile)
rescued:         0 B,  errsize:   7880 kB,  errors:       1
Current status
rescued:    142336 B,  errsize:   8275 kB,  current rate:     4096 B/s
   ipos:     8417 kB,   errors:       1,    average rate:     1530 B/s
   opos:     8417 kB
Copying data...

I kept the disk between the two window panes for about 15min and as the
temperature outside is around 2C, it seemed to have helped.
/KS
-- 
  KS
  lists04@fastmail.fm

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