On 18/5/2025 13:07, Tom via Bug reports for ddrescue, data recovery tool. wrote:
Hi! I'm running Manjaro Linux and I found out TODAY that the HDD in my HP
Pavilion laptop is experiencing some S.M.A.R.T. failures, which I interpret as
the drive starting to fail. :(
So, I'm in the process of getting some data off it before I replace it with a SSD. Some
files in some folders can't be copied, due to read errors. So, I was thinking I could
use ddrescue to "recover" these folders so I can salvage the files. I've used
ddrescue to recover entire HDDs, in the past, but I haven't tried it on individual
folders.
Is it possible to use ddrescue to recover individual folders or should I just
try to recover the entire drive and then access the files in the recovered
image?
I do not think so. ddrescue only knows about the disk blocks. It does not know
anything about the filesystem on the disk to be able to identify files or
folders.
Also, the filesystem with the folders in question is on a partition that is
encrypted (the entire drive is encrypted so I have to enter the password at
boot time to boot the system). Will this impact my ability to recover the drive
so I can access the files?
This is one of the risks with encryption. Yes, it is secure, but only if
everything continues to work properly. Recovering individual files from such a
disk, I suspect, will be difficult.
Cheers
David
