[Bug-ddrescue] Change from Disk Cloning to File Image half way through?

[Dependable-Mike]

Hi,

I am using ddrescue for the first time (v1.11 on Mint8). Very impressed so
far.

I am trying to recover a failing 320GB SATA laptop drive. It contains two
partitions, a recovery partition and an NTFS partition.
I have an identical replacement drive, so set it running with:
sudo ddrescue -n -v /dev/sdc /dev/sdb logfile

to clone the drive, and it is all looking good, have (310GB already after
skipping around a bit to avoid the worst patch, and now letting it run from
the beginning again with that same command to fill the gaps I manually
skipped).

Presumably once this pass finishes, I will want to run the same command, but
without the "-n", and maybe an r3?

However, since I am keen to get the original laptop backup and running ASAP,
I'd like to shift over to running the capture into a image file instead, and
free up the sdb harddrive for the laptop re-install, so I can work on the
data recovery in a slower pace and not need to rush it.

So, my main question is, can I use the "failing target disk" method (Example
6), to convert my target drive into a image file, and then continue on with
the next stage of ddrescue into the image instead?

i.e. Example 6 talks of:
ddrescue -f -m logfile1 /dev/hdb /dev/hdc logfile2

However, since I'm on 1.11, force doesn't apply, and because my drive isn't
failing, I am thinking of running this instead to convert my target drive to
a image file:
ddrescue /dev/sdb imagefile logfile2

Would that work?

then (since the the image should be a perfect copy of sdb), I should be able
to use the original logfile, to continue as I was, but into a file image
instead:
ddrescue -v -r3 /dev/sdc imagefile logfile

This would lead to minimal strain on the failing drive sdc, since it will
have everything it needs in the logfile already. Is this correct?

Do any of my commands need tweaking?

Thanks

Mike
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