Recover Data Using ddrescue

When a hard drive or USB starts failing, recovering data quickly is crucial. ddrescue is a powerful Linux tool designed for this task.

Installing ddrescue

sudo apt install gddrescue  

Steps to Recover Data

1. Identify the Drive

Run:

sudo fdisk -l

Note your failing drive (e.g /dev/sdb)

2. Create a Backup Image

sudo ddrescue -d -r3 /dev/sdb backup.img rescue.log

• -d Direct disk access
• -r3 Retries bad sectors 3 times
• backup.img Saves recovered data
• rescue.log Logs progress

3. Recover Files from Image

sudo mkdir /mnt/recovery
sudo mount -o loop backup.img /mnt/recovery

Copy files from /mnt/recovery to a safe location.

4. Resume Recovery if Interrupted

sudo ddrescue -d -r3 /dev/sdb backup.img rescue.log

Uses rescue.log to continue from where it stopped.

Conclusion

ddrescue is an efficient way to recover data from failing drives. Always back up important files to avoid data loss!