Hello.
I need help understanding HDD raw copy tool workflow.
I have and hdd that started to fail few days ago. I've noticed it while it is still mostly working and readable so immediately decided to copy any data that can be rescued. I don't have any deep knowledge of data rescuing alas so after some googling I've selected most safe tool from the look of it - HDD raw copy tool.
So I've started copy process with this tool. About first 60% went without any errors, after that it somewhat slowed down but still read successfully till around 90%.
But now it is at 92% and there goes constant read errors, and every error is processed like for half an hour. From the look of it, it will finish copy process somewhere around 2021 year.
Now I have very important question that I couldn't find answer from in the documentation - what will happen if I stop copy process? Will data that already copied be accessible? Or is it should finish copying process to make it accessible? I can't wait for the months for it to finish, besides I am afraid that hdd dying process speeding up and if I left it working I wouldn't be able to save even that what is possible to save now by other means.

First READ : - http://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=2750

If your data is IMPORTANT consider the use of a professional data recovery lab and chose a REPUTABLE one.

If you are willing to gamble ...

1 - If the drive is still accessible on windows / linux / whatever OS you have copy the files that you do really need out one by one (don't compy many at a time) so that even if the HDD dies later you will have the most important files extracted.

2 - Lacking hardware based cloning tools you will have to "gamble" a little bit.... If you do have paid versions of logical data recovery tools like R-Studio, DMDE, etc you might want to try to open the partition/file system of your broken drive to COPY the data that you realy need to a 3rd drive assuming the file system is damaged or the partition can't be mounted on your OS. This might be faster and safer than cloning the entire drive .... DO NOT RUN A FULL SCAN IT WILL TAKE LOTS OF TIME ...

3 - Clone/Image the drive ... Only software tools that you should use for that is HDDSUPERCLONE or ddrescue .... Forget about that HDD Raw Copy tool ....

4 - Assuming that you did CLONE with HDD Raw Copy to another drive (sector by sector copy) the sectors that were copied should be accesible and should contain the data from the original.

5 - If you have 90% of your original drive CLONED you should be able to mount the drive and extract at least some data or use logic data recovery tools on the clone to extract some data .....

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I would extract the remaining 8% with a tool such as ddrescue or HDDSuperClone. These tools understand how to work with bad heads/media.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Problem with that is that the tool used to start the copy is not the same so you would have to re-do the work with the new tool ....

So on a case like this and assuming that the option used was cloning to another drive (and NOT propriatary compressed image file) i would use HDDSUPERCLONE and clone IN REVERSE from 100% to 87% to get the data cloned to the destination drive from the missing end to the part where you do already have data ...

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Not really. The OP would need to determine the last LBA that was cloned, and then specify the next LBA as the start point in the new tool, for both source and destination.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thank you for the answers, I just didn't have enough understanding how things works.
Now after some more googling and reading thanks to your hints I got a whole picture. It cloned 90% successfully, and thanks God all important data was within that 90%, it is safe and sound on new hdd now. So with a noob luck I've got past data loss this time, whew.
Thanks again, and one new question - is there some tool/script out there that could check SMART data on computer startup and report any change/problem found? For Windows environment.

CrystalDiskInfo

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I would be careful. If a fragmented file were to have one or more of its fragments in that last, uncloned 8% section of the drive, then these fragments would present a risk of insidious file corruption.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Oh, it's quite ok. Disk was splitted up in two volumes and the first volume with essential data was recovered completely. Thanks for concern anyway.

Glad it did work out for you !

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