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 Post subject: Data Recovery After DD comand, possible? I really hope so...
PostPosted: February 27th, 2013, 10:45 
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Joined: February 27th, 2013, 10:38
Posts: 3
Location: United Kingdom
Hello to all, hoping someone on here can help? TIA

I was upgrading my laptop to a larger HDD, 60gb - 320gb and thought that by using a Linux Live CD I could use the DD command to copy the 60gb to my external Samsung HDD, then install the 320gb HDD in my laptop, connect my external Samsung HDD and copy with DD to the new 320gb HDD.

The copying of the 60gb HDD has worked... However I messed up :-( as now I cannot find or see anything that I previously had on the external Samsung HDD.

So now I really need help and advice on how I may be able to recover what was previously on my external Samsung HDD before I DD'd etc.

I hope I have explianed my predicament sufficiently, but if anyone wants or needs further information to help me out of this mess then I'm happy to provide any further info required.

Please tell me everything will be OK :-)

Many thanks,

John


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 Post subject: Re: Data Recovery After DD comand, possible? I really hope s
PostPosted: February 27th, 2013, 10:49 
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Joined: February 9th, 2009, 16:13
Posts: 2520
Location: Ontario, Canada
If you did what I think you did and copied the larger drive to the smaller, you are pretty much toast.

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery


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 Post subject: Re: Data Recovery After DD comand, possible? I really hope s
PostPosted: February 27th, 2013, 11:40 
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Joined: May 6th, 2008, 22:53
Posts: 2138
Location: England
data-recovery-newbie wrote:
I hope I have explianed my predicament sufficiently

Not for me, no. :(

There seem to be at least 3 different drives involved - a 60GB, a 320GB, and an external Samsung (size not listed). To get accurate suggestions, you need to give the exact dd commands which you used at each step, explain which drive is sda / sdb etc. on your system, and list each step (and any results / errors from dd) clearly. If you can give full and clear details, then the situation may become clearer to readers here.

Edited: I guess that you wrote the contents of the 60GB drive to the raw Samsung drive, instead of writing that 60GB into an image file, into the filesystem on the Samsung drive. It all depends on exactly which dd commands you used...


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 Post subject: Re: Data Recovery After DD comand, possible? I really hope s
PostPosted: February 27th, 2013, 14:32 
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Joined: February 27th, 2013, 10:38
Posts: 3
Location: United Kingdom
Hi Luke (lcoughey) & Vulcan... Thanks for trying to assist me :-)

Luke - Definitely didn't do that, successfully copied from 60gb to 1tb Samsung. The problem is everything I previously had on it has now gone :-(

Vulcan - your right, sorry, should have explained better...

I identified the correct disks using fdisk -l

then used dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/sda bs=32256, (this is the command used, but the hda sda may be wrong way round 60gb -IDE, Samsung - SATA) but I did identify the correct disks with the fdisk -l command. But now cannot see/find what was on my external Samsung HDD beforehand.

Thanks again both of you for trying to help :-)

John


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 Post subject: Re: Data Recovery After DD comand, possible? I really hope s
PostPosted: February 27th, 2013, 14:44 
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Joined: February 9th, 2009, 16:13
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Location: Ontario, Canada
data-recovery-newbie wrote:
Hi Luke (lcoughey) & Vulcan... Thanks for trying to assist me :-)

Luke - Definitely didn't do that, successfully copied from 60gb to 1tb Samsung. The problem is everything I previously had on it has now gone :-(

Vulcan - your right, sorry, should have explained better...

I identified the correct disks using fdisk -l

then used dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/sda bs=32256, (this is the command used, but the hda sda may be wrong way round 60gb -IDE, Samsung - SATA) but I did identify the correct disks with the fdisk -l command. But now cannot see/find what was on my external Samsung HDD beforehand.

Thanks again both of you for trying to help :-)

John

So, you overwrote your 1TB Samsung. So, any data that was on the Samsung within the first 60GB is gone. Start a scan with a data recovery program from the 60GB mark to the end and you might get a RAW recovery of what you didn't overwrite.

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery


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 Post subject: Re: Data Recovery After DD comand, possible? I really hope s
PostPosted: February 27th, 2013, 15:06 
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Joined: June 23rd, 2008, 11:26
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Location: Austin, TX
i agree with lcoughey...


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 Post subject: Re: Data Recovery After DD comand, possible? I really hope s
PostPosted: February 27th, 2013, 15:09 
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Joined: May 6th, 2008, 22:53
Posts: 2138
Location: England
@data-recovery-newbie,

John - thanks for explaining. As Luke explained, my earlier guess was correct and you've overwritten the first 60GB of your Samsung drive, due to that incorrect dd command because you used an "of" parameter for the raw disk on the Samsung - not for an image file, on a filesystem (which would need to be mounted) on the Samsung drive. :( Incorrect "if" & "of" parameters are one of the more common mistakes when using dd... (It's also an unnecessarily small "bs" parameter, but that just made the copy slower than it could have been.)

Follow Luke's suggestion for the next steps.

[Edited to add: You're going to need more disk space (e.g. an empty disk drive, but other options are possible) to hold any recovered files, while you test them for being usable etc. etc. There are other mistakes that you could make during this process... ]


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 Post subject: Re: Data Recovery After DD comand, possible? I really hope s
PostPosted: February 27th, 2013, 15:17 
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Joined: February 27th, 2013, 10:38
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Location: United Kingdom
Thanks Luke, although that's not really what I want to hear :cry:

What data recovery program would you suggest/recommend???

Is there no way I can take it to a professional / use some forensic / industrial strength program to get back the initial 60gb?

See lots of people on other forum suggesting ddrescue and foremost, but unsure if these will not work for my specific situation???

Thanks again,

John


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 Post subject: Re: Data Recovery After DD comand, possible? I really hope s
PostPosted: February 27th, 2013, 15:21 
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Joined: May 6th, 2008, 22:53
Posts: 2138
Location: England
data-recovery-newbie wrote:
Is there no way I can take it to a professional / use some forensic / industrial strength program to get back the initial 60gb?

No. The first 60GB is absolutely, totally, unrecoverable for any normal commercial process.

Some people argue that with £millions, there might be possible recovery techniques, although I have my doubts. Unless you have £millions, then the answer is what I just said. I know you won't want to hear that, but I can't change the laws of physics...

[Edited to add: Since you don't appear to have a backup of the data on that Samsung drive (otherwise you wouldn't be asking about recovery), then be aware - there are mistakes you could still make, which could cause further data loss. If you are unsure of your skills or if the data on that drive is valuable and you don't want to take further risks, then you may want to consider getting professional help to try to recover the remaining data on that drive, even though the first 60GB is lost.]


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