--- On Sat, 7/26/08, Ian Simmons <address@hidden> wrote:
From: Ian Simmons <address@hidden>
Subject: Re: [Bug-ddrescue] how big should my MBR rescue be?
To: address@hidden
Cc: "ddrescueQuestions" <address@hidden>
Received: Saturday, July 26, 2008, 1:52 PM
...
I made a copy of the image when it was only 4 Gigs and used it to learn
how to use photorec. It retrieved several mp3s that will not play. I am
assuming this is because the mp3s were fragmented across the drive so
when I retrieved them it didn't have the complete files. Is this a
correct assumption that I will need to try again on the complete image
after ddrescue it finished? Is there a way to tell when all
the actual
data is rescued and stop it so it isn't just rescuing empty sectors?
Well, the files you recovered are not complete, but that doesn't mean that they are the actual files you are after. They may be fragments of deleted files. File carvers will retrieve any file they find, regardless of whether it was allocated or not. Typically, fragmentation will only affect a handful of files on your drive. It's unlikely that if you are trying to recover a dozen mp3 all of them will be fragmented.
No, there is no way to tell when you are done getting all the relevant data. Not without a working filesystem anyway. The good news is that your problem doesn't seem to be hardware related so far (no errors). And you will have a better chance at recovering you data that way.
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