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I'm using GNU ddrescue to clone a failing 500GB disk and the image is currently sitting at 470GB. The problem is that read speed has decreased to only 8-32 KB/s so that remaining 30GB will take forever.
The disk itself only ever had ~450GB worth of stuff on it.
I don't want to wait another two weeks to finish imaging this disk, if it even finishes at all.
Can I just stop ddrescue at this point and try to recover files? I need to recover the original folder structure as well since I used folder names to organize all my files.
fuzzybabybunny
Posted 2016-05-17T22:46:55.850
Reputation: 233
The problem is file fragmentation, you can not guarantee all your files are below the 470GB threshold. The OS tends to scatter the files all around, many of the files might come out intact, but some might not. – cybernard – 2016-05-17T23:18:17.957
Yeah, that's what I'm worried about as well, but does the OS at least try to write files in physical order, starting at the middle of the disk and moving towards the periphery as space fills up? The reason I ask is that this drive has never had any data deleted off of it, being a backup storage drive. I just fill it until it's full and then just buy a new drive if I need more space. – fuzzybabybunny – 2016-05-17T23:23:55.023
Chances are it hit some bad sectors, and when you move past them the speed should go back to normal. If you have already waited hours you have a lot of bad sectors – cybernard – 2016-05-17T23:30:29.133
Hmmm... ddrescue says it hasn't encountered any "errors". Not sure if errors translates into bad sectors. – fuzzybabybunny – 2016-05-17T23:41:14.317