Hardrive imaging&data recovery from the image

Marko Viinikainen · Oct 5, 2019

Is there a good combination of programs or a program that will make exact image of a hard drive and then you could retrieve data from that image? At work I have restored dozens of documents and photos from a failing hard drive but I am worried when the drive fails completely. All the data recovery programs I have tested (Getdataback, Recuva, Puran) read data directly from the damaged hdd. This of course has risks. I am searching program that first will make 1:1 exact image of a damaged drive to a healthy drive and after that I could examine the image and recover data from that. Abovementioned programs might do that (didn't test them completely and do not have time at the moment).
Does anyone know a solution?

x BlueRobot · Oct 5, 2019

Have you looked at Acronis True Image? I've never used it personally but see that many people tend to recommend it - The Best Computer Backup Software - Acronis True Image 2020

The best solution is to keep regular backups before the hard disk begins to fail.

Sysnative Windows Update · Oct 5, 2019

Cloning should not be done from a bad drive as it can cause severe issues. If you need the data, copy it over manually via copy paste method to another hard drive and dump the bad drive. I have witnessed this hundreds of times by now.

plodr · Oct 5, 2019

I always have at least 2 copies of data stored off the computer.
Why do people insist on storing the only copy of any photo on an internal hard drive?

Our photos are burned to data CDs and sometimes also stored on sd cards or USB sticks.

Tell your users to make copies of anything they don't want to lose and store the copies externally.

Tekno Venus · Oct 5, 2019

If you're comfortable working with Linux, your best shout is dd if the drive is working, or ddrescue if the drive is failing.

Clonezilla is my go to tool for imaging and cloning, it's rock solid and can handle pretty much anything.

Marko Viinikainen · Nov 1, 2019

Thank you to everyone for these excellent suggestions. Will test them when possible. Case closed.

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Hardrive imaging&data recovery from the image

Marko Viinikainen

Member

x BlueRobot

Administrator

Sysnative Windows Update

Inactive

plodr

Sysnative Staff, Contributor

Tekno Venus

Senior Administrator, Developer

Marko Viinikainen

Member