ddrescue is a data recovery tool that copies data from a file or hardware device that contains data to another place, making every effort to rescue data in the event of read errors.
The basic operation of ddrescue is fully automatic. By this we mean that the user does not have to wait for an error, terminate the software, read the log file, and run the program in reverse. The log file enables data to be rescued very efficiently.
Having the option not to truncate the output file allows ddrescue to be run multiple times on the same output file, each time attempting to fill in the gaps.
With two or more damaged copies of a file (or CD, DVD, etc) ddrescue should be able to reconstruct a complete and error-free file.
The logfile is periodically saved to disk. In the event of a crash you can resume the rescue with little recopying. Also, the same logfile can be used for multiple commands that copy different areas of the file, and for multiple recovery attempts over different subsets.
ddrescue aligns its I/O buffer to the sector size so that it can be used to read from raw devices. For efficiency reasons, the buffer is aligned to the memory page size if page size is a multiple of sector size.
Features include:
- Copies data from one file or block device (hard disk, DVD-ROM, etc) to another.
- Does not truncate the output file if not asked to, so every time you run it on the same output file, it tries to fill in the gaps.
- Designed to be fully automatic.
- Data is rescued very efficiently (only the needed blocks are read).
- Log file is periodically saved to disc.
- Automatic merging of backups.
- Log file can be used for multiple commands that copy different areas of the file, and for multiple recovery attempts over different subsets.
- Automatic merging.
- Highlights bad sectors on the disk.
Website: www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue
Support:
Developer: Antonio Diaz Diaz
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
ddrescue is written in C++. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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