Which image file to pick for ddrescue?

1

The instructions for ddrescue / gddrescue are awful. The main instructions just say without mentioning any file types

ddrescue /input /output logfile

Others tell me to do

ddrescue /input /output.dmg logfile.log

I'm running Ubuntu 14 and I don't even know how to open and browse a .dmg file. I want to be able to open it like a .zip or .rar file and just browse around and look at the contents while it is in the process of completing. The .dmg file is currently 300GB and it's a 500GB drive.

fuzzybabybunny

Posted 2016-05-06T11:51:59.510

Reputation: 233

2gddrescue over ddrescue. .dmg is a apple specific extension. Extensions don't matter. Due to the nature of ddrescue's imaging, its not a stream, so opening it up while its doing its thing is unlikely. – Journeyman Geek – 2016-05-06T12:05:37.150

There's no way for me to browse the files contained in the partially complete image file? The image file may never be complete because the drive itself is screwed. – fuzzybabybunny – 2016-05-06T12:08:06.033

Answers

1

You want gddrescue - its a different package and better.

The syntax is simply ddrescue source destination

Assuming you want to backup /dev/sda its ddrescue /dev/sda /path/to/file/filename.extension

You can't peer into a gddrescue backup due to the way it backs up IIRC. Just let it do its thing.

Journeyman Geek

Posted 2016-05-06T11:51:59.510

Reputation: 119 122

That's what I've been using: http://mirror.lagoon.nc/pub/gnu/ddrescue/

– fuzzybabybunny – 2016-05-06T19:52:07.010

What kind of file does gddrescue back up to? In Windows for example you've got ISO, zip, rar, etc. They're all different kinds of files read by different software but I can peer inside them and extract singular files any time I want. You're saying that I can simply do /path/to/file/filename.zip? – fuzzybabybunny – 2016-05-06T19:56:48.567

FYI I'm using version 1.21 – fuzzybabybunny – 2016-05-06T20:08:39.707

@fuzzybabybunny What kind of file? ddrescue writes exact copy of the source, unless there are read errors. Even then it tries to save as much as possible. There is no specific format: zip in, zip out; ISO in, ISO out; device in, its image out – and so on. – Kamil Maciorowski – 2016-05-06T20:18:58.227

Which file extension should I be picking then if I want to easily be able to mount the file in Ubuntu afterwards and get files off of it? – fuzzybabybunny – 2016-05-06T20:21:18.203

Extensions don't matter. Pick any or none. – Kamil Maciorowski – 2016-05-06T20:22:21.713

Asked: 2016-05-06T11:51:59.510

Viewed: 241 times

Active: 2016-05-06T20:09:37.907