Recovering Data from a Damaged HDD: A Case Study with ddrescue and Disk Repair Tools
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Data recovery can often be a complex and stressful process, especially when multiple storage devices are involved and initial mistakes lead to data loss. In this article, we explore a real-world scenario where an attempt to install Linux Mint resulted in unintentional data overwriting and subsequent recovery efforts using tools like ddrescue and Disk utilities on Linux Mint.
The Incident Overview
A user aimed to install Linux Mint 23 on a 1TB SSD but inadvertently installed it on a 1.5TB HDD. This mistake led to the erasure of existing partitions and approximately 1.4TB of data from the HDD. Importantly, the user took precautions to unmount the HDD and prevent direct writes to the drive during the process.
Initial Data Recovery Attempt with ddrescue
Following the installation mishap, the user employed ddrescue, a powerful data recovery tool, to restore data from the affected HDD. During this process, a mapfile was created on a 1TB HDD that was about 85% used. However, the recovery process was interrupted by an error:
ddrescue: Write error: No space left on device
This error suggests that the storage allocated for the recovery process ran out of space. As a result, the 1TB drive became unmountable, complicating the recovery efforts further. An attempt to mount the drive via the Disks utility yielded an error message indicating issues such as incorrect filesystem type, bad superblock, or missing helper programs:
Error mounting /dev/sde2: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sde2, missing codepage or helper program, or other error (udisks-error-quark, 0)
Troubleshooting and Additional Tools Used
The user also experimented with testdisk, an open-source tool capable of recovering lost partitions and repairing filesystem issues. Unfortunately, these efforts did not yield a successful recovery, leaving the data on the 1TB HDD still inaccessible.
Recommendations and Best Practices
While the specific details of these recovery attempts demonstrate the challenges involved, here are some key takeaways for anyone dealing with similar issues:
- Avoid Writing to the Damaged Drive: When data loss is suspected, create a complete disk image or clone the drive before attempting repairs.
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