In various mailing list threads about failing discs like [1], the advices for trying to rescue as much data as possible always mention gnu_ddrescue, ddrescue or dd_rescue, and often claim that plain dd is a bad choice (not in this case).
[1] http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2014-02/msg00424.html Would it really be that bad to use something like the following? dd if=/dev/sda1 of=sda1.img conv=noerror iflag=fullblock If this is true, we could add a link like http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ into the Texinfo manual, otherwise, we should add an example like the above. (AFAIK tools like ddrescue try an adaptive approach for 'ibs' values on failing sectors, and have other sophisticated features like backup merging - admitted.) Have a nice day, Berny
