Hello Kevin! You would NOT want to access an already damaged disk through the Finder, especially not while you are trying to get a consistent image of the drive. And you do realize that to "Initialize" or "Format" a disk means to erase its contents on purpose? That's why you don't see the partition any more.
I am sorry, but from your first email I supposed you basically know what you are doing and just need some tips for optimization. Now I see that this might not be the case. So if the data is as important to you as you write, the only responsible advice I can give you is to leave it alone and hand it over to a professional. Give him also the partially recovered "Rescue.dmg" and a detailed record of what you did to the drive so far. This might help recovering some of your data, if you are lucky. Greetings, Florian Am 11.10.2014 um 05:14 schrieb Kevin Doan: > Hello Florian, > > Thank you very much for your kind detailed reply. I think my external hard > disk has really faced its destiny. > > I can’t access the hard disk anymore even from finder, I did some research > and I saw if I click on Initialize it actually formats the hard drive but > when I choose Ignore then pretty much nothing happens. > > <PastedGraphic-1.png> > > I have many years of data and would be really pity if nothing could be > recovered :-(. Is there any method to at least get to see the files from the > hard disk as I used to as it seems like the partition has completed > disappeared. > > Once again thank you very much for your kind help. > > Best regards, > Kevin > > On 3 Oct, 2014, at 21:27, Florian Sedivy <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hello Kevin! >> >> Obviously you are doing this on a Mac. This and the actual command line you >> used would have been important details to share when asking for help. >> >> From what I can deduce, you are using -c 4096 (or probably -c 4Ki). In my >> testing values bigger than 256 sectors of 512 bytes did not improve speed >> any further. The only drawback of such a big value however are less frequent >> updates to ddrescue's UI, so while -c 256 would be the optimal value, yours >> probably did no harm. >> >> You can speed up the transfer a lot by using the raw character device >> instead of the block device. So in your case that would be /dev/rdisk3s3 >> instead of /dev/disk3s3 IF the device did not change - always check the >> device name before you start ddrescue! Still you will need A LOT of patience >> if the drive has real problems and it certainly looks like it has. Let >> ddrescue do it's thing. >> >> There is no use in trying to write a partially rescued image to another >> partition. Even the last rescued byte could make all the difference to the >> validity of the enclosed filesystem. So just wait until you think you have >> everything the damaged drive is ever going to give you, before proceeding to >> the next step. >> >> I seriously hope /Users/kevin/Desktop/MPA/recovery.log wasn't the original >> log file you used for the recovery? If it was, then you destroyed it by >> using it for restoring the image and will have to create a new one. You >> could either start over from zero or find a good backup of your log file >> (Time Machine?) or create a new log file from Rescue.dmg with ddrescue's >> Generate-Mode. Here I'd like to cite the help-screen: Do not use options >> '-F' or '-G' without reading the manual first! >> >> By the way, you can mount .dmg images directly to check for your results, >> without having to restore it to a partition first. Most file system repair >> tools will also happily accept an image file. Just make sure you prevent >> writing to your original dmg so you don't compromise the raw rescue result! >> You can work on a copy, write-protect the original (obviously not while >> ddrescue is running), mount with shadow option, use some tool like Disk >> Arbitrator to prevent mounting read-write, or whatever you can think of, but >> let NO other tool except ddrescue write to your image before you have your >> data safe AND know exactly what you are doing. To be clear, that also means >> DON'T just double-click Rescue.dmg without having protected it first! >> >> Good Luck, >> Florian >> >> Am 02.10.2014 um 23:54 schrieb Kevin Doan: >> >>> Dear Sir or Madam, >>> >>> After many research I found your great tool on your site and spend = >>> several days on trying to recover my damaged external Western Digital = >>> hard drive. That being said, it seems like it is taking eternity for it = >>> complete therefore I hope if you could help me. I have stopped the = >>> process and restarted the PC but speed is still extremely slow. >>> >>> GNU ddrescue 1.18.1 >>> About to copy an unknown number of bytes from /dev/disk3s3 to = >>> /Users/kevin/Desktop/Rescue.dmg >>> Starting positions: infile =3D 0 B, outfile =3D 0 B >>> Copy block size: 4096 sectors Initial skip size: 128 sectors >>> Sector size: 512 Bytes >>> >>> Press Ctrl-C to interrupt >>> Initial status (read from logfile) >>> rescued: 8716 MB, errsize: 6676 MB, errors: 2056 >>> >>> Current status >>> rescued: 9177 MB, errsize: 7092 MB, current rate: 0 B/s >>> ipos: 77938 MB, errors: 2142, average rate: 118 kB/s >>> opos: 77938 MB, run time: 1.07 h, successful read: 38 s = >>> ago >>> Copying non-tried blocks... Pass 1 (forwards) >>> >>> >>> Even with the incomplete the Rescue.dmg file I tried to use the below = >>> command to recover the files: >>> >>> kevin$ sudo /opt/local/bin/ddrescue --force -v -c 4096 = >>> /Users/kevin/Desktop/Rescue.dmg /dev/rdisk4s2 = >>> /Users/kevin/Desktop/MPA/recovery.log >>> >>> But without any luck. Any help you could provide is greatly appreciated. >>> >>> Thank you and best regards, >>> Kevin >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Bug-ddrescue mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-ddrescue >> > _______________________________________________ Bug-ddrescue mailing list [email protected] https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-ddrescue
