<![CDATA[Folks, I need help.]]>Folks, I need help. A friend of mine handed me a nearly dead HDD with tons of photos and documents. It's a WD My Passport 500 GB, very old, making funny noises but not too much. Windows sees it, diskpart says file system: raw.
What is the best way of attempting to recover the data? We don't care about the HDD itself, just the files on it.
After some investigation I found GNU DdRescue (needs to load into Ubuntu which is a bit daunting, I have no experience working with Linux Desktop and screen readers really); R-Studio and a couple more pieces of software for Windows.
Any ideas, comments, suggestions are hugely appreciated.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/topic/f91b9c6d-2277-4a4f-9972-3579e38e32ac/folks-i-need-help.RSS for NodeMon, 21 Sep 2026 21:58:56 GMTMon, 07 Sep 2026 18:56:37 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Folks, I need help. on Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:53:53 GMT]]>@menelion

Yes, you should not work on the data directly on that disk, but make a copy first on another storage device, at the bit level.

If these are important documents I'd recommend to ask a professional.

I would recommend to look at photorec and their windows tool, if you're not familiar with the Linux desktop.

They have a guide for who to recover files
https://photorec.net/#getting-started

Most importantly: don't panic

Don't stress about the process, take your time.

Good luck 😊

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://helvede.net/users/folfdk/statuses/117231506767893085https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://helvede.net/users/folfdk/statuses/117231506767893085Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:53:53 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Folks, I need help. on Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:52:07 GMT]]>@crazydutchy Thanks, will consider also.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://caneandable.social/ap/users/117128445314301747/statuses/117231499844671386https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://caneandable.social/ap/users/117128445314301747/statuses/117231499844671386Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:52:07 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Folks, I need help. on Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:51:53 GMT]]>@puppygirlhornypost2 @drwho As far as I understand, it's kinda tedious to get to that USB disk through WSL2. I mean, I use it every day for development, but in this case just don't know, hence I'm asking.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://caneandable.social/ap/users/117128445314301747/statuses/117231498897055026https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://caneandable.social/ap/users/117128445314301747/statuses/117231498897055026Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:51:53 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Folks, I need help. on Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:50:15 GMT]]>@drwho I'm skilled in *command-line* Linux, like ssh to a server and do something. That's because I'm totally blind, and Linux desktop accessibility, especially from scratch and especially from live USB, is something questionable, so to say. I'm not saying it's impossible though, just needs more time and effort. Thanks!

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://caneandable.social/ap/users/117128445314301747/statuses/117231492487800532https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://caneandable.social/ap/users/117128445314301747/statuses/117231492487800532Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:50:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Folks, I need help. on Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:38:49 GMT]]>@menelion Of course, if the harddisk makes weird noises, and especially if its really important, you need to ask yourself how much risk you are willing to take, or when it may be time to look into professional file recovery. I know, that is likely expensive. I have gotten lucky a few times, but also unlucky, so just wanted to put that out there.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tulipgardenshow.masto.host/users/crazydutchy/statuses/117231447571953852https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tulipgardenshow.masto.host/users/crazydutchy/statuses/117231447571953852Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:38:49 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Folks, I need help. on Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:32:33 GMT]]>@menelion I sometimes have had luck with Recuva, which runs under windows and is made by the same people who also made CCleaner. It works decently with NVDA and I assume JAWS as well. Of course I don't know if it will help you in this case, but hope it might.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tulipgardenshow.masto.host/users/crazydutchy/statuses/117231422885413073https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://tulipgardenshow.masto.host/users/crazydutchy/statuses/117231422885413073Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:32:33 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Folks, I need help. on Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:15:38 GMT]]>@drwho@masto.hackers.town @menelion@caneandable.social I genuinely wonder if using WSL2 would be a valid option here.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl2-mount-disk#mounting-an-unpartitioned-disk

afaik you can have graphical environments with wsl2 but ddrescue itself is a cli tool.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://transfem.social/notes/aqv6qbm0yr4m2jsghttps://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://transfem.social/notes/aqv6qbm0yr4m2jsgMon, 07 Sep 2026 19:15:38 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Folks, I need help. on Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:13:30 GMT]]>@menelion One trick I've heard data recovery services use is literally sticking the subject drive in a freezer overnight before attempting recovery. I'm assuming this helps with drive read head clearance through the sheer physical contraction of parts.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://plush.city/users/LexYeen/statuses/117231347974833839https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://plush.city/users/LexYeen/statuses/117231347974833839Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:13:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Folks, I need help. on Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:12:22 GMT]]>@menelion windows? "Disk drill" is what you want... It's a crappy ui, but well scan the disk and save most files

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/dee/statuses/117231343565357660https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.treehouse.systems/users/dee/statuses/117231343565357660Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:12:22 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Folks, I need help. on Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:11:56 GMT]]>@drwho@masto.hackers.town @menelion@caneandable.social Well from the post itself I think that one of the issues here is going to be accessibility. I know GNU Orca exists but I also know that's not really a drop in replacement for something like NVDA.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://transfem.social/notes/aqv6lk9hwpp12jblhttps://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://transfem.social/notes/aqv6lk9hwpp12jblMon, 07 Sep 2026 19:11:56 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Folks, I need help. on Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:10:30 GMT]]>@menelion@caneandable.social There's this old tried and true method of sticking it in the freezer. You do have to be weary of condensation forming on the drive but I've heard countless ancedotal stories about it working even if just temporarily. I'd honestly try that and then use the time you have with the disk to back it up somewhere else.

I'd recommend against using tools like DDRescue unless you can't get anything else to work. If you can get a backup of the drive then you will have a way to try destructive tools out (you should probably back up the back up in that case, i wouldn't particularly recommend using the passport itself for that purpose).

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://transfem.social/notes/aqv6jp9ywpp12jb3https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://transfem.social/notes/aqv6jp9ywpp12jb3Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:10:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Folks, I need help. on Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:06:18 GMT]]>@menelion I'm not sure what your parameters are, but this is what I'd recommend:

Ubuntu and ddRescue. I'd go with five retries per error. Rip a file system image to the Ubuntu machine and only work on the image. Loopback mount the disk image and see what you can copy out of it.

What specific situation are you in? You said that you're not particularly well skilled with Linux (if I'm understanding you correctly), is there more?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://masto.hackers.town/users/drwho/statuses/117231319663515373https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://masto.hackers.town/users/drwho/statuses/117231319663515373Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:06:18 GMT