Disk tools

DDRescue

DDRescue is an alternative to the DD partition imaging tool. 

DDRescue is optimised for data recovery.

DD rescue may target individual

Use the DDRescueview GUI tool to examine ddrescue map files to visualise the state of a failing disk

Syntax

ddrescue <device> <image file> <mapfile>

ddrescue -v /dev/sdx /mnt/rescue/disk-image.ddr disk-image.map

ddrescule -v /dev/sdx1 /mnt/rescue/part-1-image.ddr part-1-image.map

Mounting DDRescue image

DDRescue images can be mounted using the loopback device

#mount image using the first available loopback device

mount /mnt/rescue/part-1-image.ddr /mnt/recover -o loop

#mount a vfat image using the loop1 device explicitly

mount -t vfat -o loop=/dev/loop1 /mnt/rescue/part-1-image.ddr /mnt/recover

#manually unmount

umount /mnt/recover/part-1-image.ddr

losetup -d

DD

DD is the ancient Linux disk duplicator tool.  DD reads and writes raw bytes.

DD is powerful but terse with no confirmation prompts or other safety nets.

DD may target an image file or a device file.  Essentially 'any' file.

Caution is advised to double check syntax before entering. (dd has been nicknamed 'disk destroyer') 

DD can not only image complete partitions but also individual blocks

Syntax

dd <device> <image file>

dd <device> <device>

dd /dev/sdx /mnt/rescue/disk-image.dd

dd /dev/sdx1 /mnt/rescue/part-1-image.dd bs=1024 status=progress

#wipe mbr and partition table

dd /dev/null /dev/sdx count=512 seek_bytes=1