HDD GURU FORUMS

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.

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

Spildit wrote:

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

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 ....

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.

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.

SunWukong wrote: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

SunWukong wrote:It cloned 90% successfully, and thanks God all important data was within that 90%, it is safe and sound on new hdd now.

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.

fzabkar wrote:

SunWukong wrote:It cloned 90% successfully, and thanks God all important data was within that 90%, it is safe and sound on new hdd now.

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.

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.