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lothar56 · Oct 9, 2005, 06:10 PM

I learned about this command from this article
I've got a hard drive from a Dell that might possibly be a bit damaged that will only show up under OS X's disk utility, but no partition shows up. There is about 4 gigs of stuff that I'd really like to get off of it. Is this command something that would be helpful, and if so could someone explain exactly how to do this to someone who knows nothing about the terminal? I've got a B&W G3 that I can house the drive in, but I don't have 10 gigs free to create the disc image. I do have an iBook with that much free space if I can tell it to store to a network drive somehow. Please help!

lothar56 · Oct 10, 2005, 12:23 AM

I guess what I'm asking for it how do I specify in the Terminal where to get the data from and where to send it to. The command is:
dd bs=512 if=/dev/rXX# of=/some_dir/foo.dmg conv=noerror,sync

where if=/dev/rXX# is the unix path to the device and some_dir/foo.dmg is where the dmg is to be saved. How do I find the path to a hard drive that only shows up in Disk Utility and has no tangible volumes? And how to I tell the terminal to send the file to my iBook connected to the G3 in FW Target Disk mode?? Please help guys!

OogaBooga · Oct 10, 2005, 01:01 AM

Dude, there's no way you're going to be able to pull the data off an NTFS formatted drive from your Mac. You could do it in Linux, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're at least a little Linux savvy.

lothar56 · Oct 10, 2005, 01:35 AM

Okay, thanks for letting me know. Would it work to put it in a FW enclosure and hook it up to a Windows box?

Detrius · Oct 10, 2005, 02:48 AM

ProSoft makes a version of Data Rescue for PCs. It boots into Linux and is a fabulous piece of data recovery software, as it is on the Mac. As long as the read/write heads can be correctly controlled, you have a really good shot at data recovery with Data Rescue. However, if the heads are banging away, your option is Drive Savers.

Gavin · Oct 10, 2005, 03:30 AM

Originally Posted by lothar56

Okay, thanks for letting me know. Would it work to put it in a FW enclosure and hook it up to a Windows box?

Well, yes and no. That is a good idea but it might not solve it. Could be that the drive is fried.

When you say damaged what exactly are you talking about?

The computer it was originally in can't read it? or won't boot from it? Or it shoots sparks and makes noise like dropping a handful of bolts onto a concrete floor?

So yes: You may be able to get your data just by plugging it into a windows box using a firewire case. I'd try that first. If your G3 is the only box you have with free space the problem is that Macs don't read NTFS, but you may be able to mount it on a windows box then back it up to the mac over file-sharing.

Love Calm Quiet · Oct 10, 2005, 09:23 AM

I've had good results inserting a PC HD in a FW enclosure, attaching it to my PowerBook, and finding all the PC's files accessible through my Finder.

I wasn't trying to *recover* the files - only to delete those that had sensitive info.

Worked fine. Please let me know how recovery works.

galarneau · Oct 10, 2005, 09:54 AM

Macs can read NTFS, but can't write it.

I thikn the partition table on that drive might be borked. Definitely check out a drive recovery program on a PC.

I like Partition Table Doctor.

lothar56 · Oct 10, 2005, 04:03 PM

I threw it into my external firewire enclosure and hooked it up to my iBook one more time for the heck of it, and it friggin MOUNTED! So I got all of the files off it, no problem.

[APi]TheMan · Oct 10, 2005, 08:29 PM

Originally Posted by galarneau

Macs can read NTFS, but can't write it.

Yep.

Originally Posted by lothar56

I threw it into my external firewire enclosure and hooked it up to my iBook one more time for the heck of it, and it friggin MOUNTED! So I got all of the files off it, no problem.

Awesome.