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    #1

    Saving a dying HDD

    My 1 TB Seagate drive threw up a SMART error this morning. I'm running the SeaTools DOS diagnostics on it now, which may save it. If not....

    This is a two-drive machine. System on the Seagate, and data on a WD 1.5 TB drive. If it dies totally, I only lose the system. However, it takes a long time to set up a system and tweak it the way I want it. I don't want to start again very bad.

    This drive is not very old, but even if Seagate replaces it, I am faced with duplicating the info on it. It is already a replacement for the original drive in this old core-2 duo desktop machine. I used dd the last time to copy the info from the dying original 160 GB drive (another Seagate) to this 1 TB Seagate. Seems I don't have much success with Seagate.

    So, I guess I could probably use DD again to copy the info over, but it seems like a waste to copy over 1 TB of sectors when there is only about 8 GB of info on the drive.

    Is there an easier way to do this?

    Frank.
    Linux: Powerful, open, elegant. Its all I use.
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    #2
    I assume you have the entire drive as a single partition? Try making a backup on the second drive using rdiff-backup or rsync

    Please Read Me
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      #3
      More specifically, make a folder on the WD drive and set it as the target for a backup. Then restore from the folder when you get a replacement drive.

      Or how about copying the entire install to the other drive and then making it your boot drive?

      Please Read Me
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        #4
        Depending on how much free capacity is available on the WD drive, it would be very cool and time-saving if you could do this with GParted:1. Shrink the OS partition on the Seagate drive to as small as reasonably possible -- i.e. 110% of the size of the filesystem presently being used for the OS.2. Free up space on the WD drive that is slightly larger than the shrunk partition with the OS on the Seagate drive. (Obviously you might need to shrink your existing data partition to do this).3. Using GParted, copy and paste the OS partition from the Seagate drive to the unallocated free space on the WD drive, thereby creating a new partition that is exactly the same as the OS partition on the Seagate.If you can do this, you only need to twiddle grub-pc and /etc/fstab to have a bootable OS on the WD drive, with your data available. You'll need oshunluvr's favorite command to make the /etc/fstab adjustments:
        Code:
        sudo blkid -c /dev/null -o list
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          #5
          dd_rescue is awesome!!!
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            #6
            Oshunluvr:

            More specifically, make a folder on the WD drive and set it as the target for a backup. Then restore from the folder when you get a replacement drive.
            This won't restore the boot partition, GRUB, and so on, correct? Then do I format a new drive, install a base 12.04, then restore over that?

            Frank.
            Linux: Powerful, open, elegant. Its all I use.
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              #7
              dibl:

              Using GParted, copy and paste the OS partition from the Seagate drive to the unallocated free space on the WD drive
              I don't want the system on the WD drive. The WD drive is internal, fixed. I want the OS to be on a removable drive so I can play with a new OS on another removable drive without risking my working install.

              Now, moving the whole partition to another drive might be interesting. Can GParted do this over USB? I ask because I have an external HD adapter that uses firewire, USB, or eSATA. I just plug the bare drive into the external adapter, and connect it to a machine by one of those interfaces. Unfortunately, this old box only has USB 2, not eSATA or firewire, though I could easily put an expansion card in to give it that ability, I guess.

              Frank.
              Linux: Powerful, open, elegant. Its all I use.
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                #8
                dmeyer:

                dd_rescue is awesome!!!
                Yes, looks interesting. I just read some info on it. Does it indeed only copy the sectors that have data in them? If so, this would be the real solution for me, as it would do what dd does, but not waste time copying empty sectors from the source to the destination disk.

                Can anyone confirm that behavior with this package?

                Frank.
                Linux: Powerful, open, elegant. Its all I use.
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                  #9
                  Originally posted by Frank616 View Post
                  Does it indeed only copy the sectors that have data in them.
                  fsarchiver does that. It's in the repos, but would want your system disc to be unmounted. I think you probably know this, but in case you haven't, you really should have a CD or USB stick you can boot from. I've used systemrescuecd for years, and it comes with fsarchiver these days.

                  HTH, and regards, John Little
                  Regards, John Little
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                    #10
                    Rescue data

                    About Ddrescue
                    (package: gddrescue)

                    http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html
                    GNU ddrescue is a data recovery tool. It copies data from one file or block device (hard disc, cdrom, etc) to another...
                    An example: http://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthr...from-hard-disk

                    More tools: http://www.kubuntuforums.net/showthr...tions-amp-Data
                    Have you tried ?

                    - How to Ask a Question on the Internet and Get It Answered
                    - How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
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                      #11
                      Master Skribe:

                      I bookmarked that example link. Great info! I may well give that a try -- next week 'when things slow down' (yeah, right).

                      Frank.
                      Linux: Powerful, open, elegant. Its all I use.
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