[NBLUG/talk] Recovering data from a failing hard disk

[Lincoln Peters]

On Mon, 2004-08-23 at 18:29, Mitch Patenaude wrote:
> I don't think dd is as useful a tool as other's apparently do.  It does 
> one thing
> well: block i/o, usually to/from raw devices.  Using it to move regular 
> files
> around is, if anything, worse than just using cp.  dd is ignorant of 
> things like
> sparse files, symlinks, permissions, yada yada.

Okay; I won't use dd.

> 
> Here's what I'd recommend:
> 
> cd /old/disk; find . -print0 | cpio -pdmv0 /new/disk/

I hadn't thought to use cpio, but it does look like a better way.  But
how will cpio react if it encounters an Input/Output error (and I'm sure
it will encounter a few)?

And I'm sure that there are no sub-mounted filesystems here, so it won't
matter if I omit the -mount switch from "find".

> 
> Note: it's vital that find print the names relative to the mount point 
> of the old drive.

I'd already figured that much out.

> 
> This will preserve symlinks, permissions, ownership, etc.

Excellent.  I hadn't thought about that, either.

---
Lincoln Peters
<sampln at sbcglobal.net>

For courage mounteth with occasion.
		-- William Shakespeare, "King John"