othersteve
Member
- Reaction score
- 14
Hey all,
So here's a topic that I know has come up multiple times in the past... but the last time I saw anything about it was back in 2010, so I figured I'd resurrect the subject once again for some much-appreciated input.
I do quite a lot of data recovery these days, and every so often I run into a drive which is badly troubled but still partially operable. In these cases, my first move is to (perhaps unadvisably) first attempt to directly retrieve any critical data if the partition structure is even partially readable. Next, I attempt a full drive image to prevent any further data loss before going after the rest of the customer's data.
My questions is this: What's the best solution for imaging troubled drives?
I have tried a number of different solutions myself, including:
I've not yet tried ddrescue, but I hear it's robust. Unfortunately I haven't enough Linux knowledge to really work effectively within that environment. Unstoppable Copier won't really work as I really need sector-by-sector reading so that further recovery can be performed on the drive image one we're finished.
In terms of hardware, I try connecting directly to the board of a dedicated recovery machine (my first choice always), followed by a USB to SATA/IDE adapter failing that. If both of those options fail to produce results, I move on to Media Tools as a last resort. I rarely use it due to its rigidity and slowness (as detailed above).
So--what about you guys? Anyone got a solid, convenient imaging solution that won't cost a grand or more? Sure, I'd love a Deepspar, Data Copy King, or Yec Ninja, but alas, I don't have $10K to toss around just to image drives. But I'd sure love the flexibility if I could get it to run the full gamut of Tier 1/2 data recovery jobs...
So here's a topic that I know has come up multiple times in the past... but the last time I saw anything about it was back in 2010, so I figured I'd resurrect the subject once again for some much-appreciated input.
I do quite a lot of data recovery these days, and every so often I run into a drive which is badly troubled but still partially operable. In these cases, my first move is to (perhaps unadvisably) first attempt to directly retrieve any critical data if the partition structure is even partially readable. Next, I attempt a full drive image to prevent any further data loss before going after the rest of the customer's data.
My questions is this: What's the best solution for imaging troubled drives?
I have tried a number of different solutions myself, including:
- Acronis True Image - Generally good
- R-Studio/R-Drive Image - Also quite good, and currently my imaging program of choice
- Media Tools Professional 5.1 (which, yes, I own) - When a drive absolutely cannot be read in any other program. The problem? It's slower than Christmas (estimating months to completion at times), sometimes finicky, and never updated. The company (ProSoft) seems to be thrilled now with their higher-margin Mac software suites and thus less interested in any sort of improvements. There is also no choice to skip sectors in blocks when trouble is encountered.
- StarTech UNIDUPDOCK (a hardware imaging device) - Great, but not reliable. It tends to hang at the first bad sector and just sit there.
- Active@ Disk Image - Buggy to say the least, especially upon restoration of files, which fails at times. No good!
I've not yet tried ddrescue, but I hear it's robust. Unfortunately I haven't enough Linux knowledge to really work effectively within that environment. Unstoppable Copier won't really work as I really need sector-by-sector reading so that further recovery can be performed on the drive image one we're finished.
In terms of hardware, I try connecting directly to the board of a dedicated recovery machine (my first choice always), followed by a USB to SATA/IDE adapter failing that. If both of those options fail to produce results, I move on to Media Tools as a last resort. I rarely use it due to its rigidity and slowness (as detailed above).
So--what about you guys? Anyone got a solid, convenient imaging solution that won't cost a grand or more? Sure, I'd love a Deepspar, Data Copy King, or Yec Ninja, but alas, I don't have $10K to toss around just to image drives. But I'd sure love the flexibility if I could get it to run the full gamut of Tier 1/2 data recovery jobs...
