Backing up files from internal drive of my (broken) HTPC....

kdar · 2011-10-20 03:59:04

I am trying to back up files from internal drive of my HTPC.

First I just tried to install Arch. Re-format everything except for /home partition. That didn't work.

Then I tried to back up using some Ubuntu live CD that I had laying around. That didn't work. Coping files end up with Input/Output error.

Then I took this drive out and connected it internally to sata and power in my main (working) arch computer. Drive was acting very slow and if I try to copy something it eventually will end up with same Input/Output error (especially in case of big files.... Usually transfer speed gradually goes dawn to 0 as its trying to copy the file(s))..

What can I do? Don't want to loose all those files... Have a lot of tv-shows and movies on there.. about 1.5TB...

Last edited by kdar (2011-10-20 13:21:32)

lolilolicon · 2011-10-20 04:03:36

Try testdisk and ddrescue.

kdar · 2011-10-20 05:00:32

Can I back up the entire drive somewhere else? I bought a 3tb external drive, for that purpose few days ago.

Last edited by kdar (2011-10-20 05:06:50)

lolilolicon · 2011-10-20 05:21:18

Sure, there're many tools that can image hard disks, ddrescue being an example.
If the disk is not faulty, it should be really simple. dd would be sufficient, but ddrescue is better due to its error recovery features and it's resumable. You can either image the disk to a larger disk, or dump an image of it in file; in the latter case, you can mount any partition of the image file using loop with an offset (e.g. `-o loop,offset=12345').
See the man and info pages of ddrescue for examples.

kdar · 2011-10-20 15:19:47

ok. I will try this later today, after my work.

Does anyone have idea why I would have Input/Output error? Or why I can't copy large files?
I tried to look about Input/Output error on here and on other forums and wasn't able to find any solution.... except for people posting that they have the same problem..

bangkok_manouel · 2011-10-20 15:51:01

which filesystems are you using?

kdar · 2011-10-20 16:43:55

ext4

Its first time that something like this happened to me.

This drive is pretty new too, I bought it in April of 2010.

Last edited by kdar (2011-10-20 16:49:27)

kdar · 2011-10-22 13:53:58

Somehow, after I used a diagnostic CD from WD and wrote all zeros to drive, it made drive functional again. I was able to install Arch on it again.

lolilolicon · 2011-10-22 13:56:34

I'm thinking you didn't run fsck or testdisk...

Arch Linux

#1 2011-10-20 03:59:04

Backing up files from internal drive of my (broken) HTPC....

#2 2011-10-20 04:03:36

Re: Backing up files from internal drive of my (broken) HTPC....

#3 2011-10-20 05:00:32

Re: Backing up files from internal drive of my (broken) HTPC....

#4 2011-10-20 05:21:18

Re: Backing up files from internal drive of my (broken) HTPC....

#5 2011-10-20 15:19:47

Re: Backing up files from internal drive of my (broken) HTPC....

#6 2011-10-20 15:51:01

Re: Backing up files from internal drive of my (broken) HTPC....

#7 2011-10-20 16:43:55

Re: Backing up files from internal drive of my (broken) HTPC....

#8 2011-10-22 13:53:58

Re: Backing up files from internal drive of my (broken) HTPC....

#9 2011-10-22 13:56:34

Re: Backing up files from internal drive of my (broken) HTPC....

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