* Ted Unangst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2008-09-02 22:56:49]: > On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 10:31 PM, Travers Buda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > If imaging a failing disk is what you really want, then I recommend ddrescue > > http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html > > gnu bleh. > > Not sure what ddresuce means by "trying hard" to read a device, but it > really can't do much that the kernel isn't already going to do with > regards to retries. Anyway, if you just want to clone disks, there's > also g4u. But it does require running netbsd, at least for a short > while. ;) And there's probably some work to make it work on macppc.
You can get the recoverable stuff off a disk quickly because you can tell it to automatically skip over groups of bad sectors when you run into them (in the stead of retry, retry, retry) and go back over the troublesome spots later. That way you can get most of the data off the disk before the whole thing blows up and grapeshots your machine room with exploded platters containing all your precious data. However, you should never need a tool like this because you have a proper backup and recovery scheme, right, RIGHT? -- Travers Buda
