backdown rescue

backdown rescue [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>

backdown rescue image#

Copy a failing drive or card into an image file: the good areas first, the bad ones later. Stop it any time (Ctrl+C) and run the same command again to carry on. A map beside the image (IMAGE.map, in GNU ddrescue's format) records what's been read.

backdown rescue image [OPTIONS] <SOURCE> <IMAGE>

Arguments#

<SOURCE>

The drive, partition or card (e.g. /dev/sdc), or an image file.

<IMAGE>

The image file to write, on another drive.

Options#

--retries <RETRIES>

Passes over unreadable sectors at the end. Default: 1.

--sector <SECTOR>

Sector size to read unreadable areas in (512 or 4096; default: 4096 for drives on Linux, which reads them a page at a time anyway, else 512).

--same-drive

Allow the image on another partition of the same physical drive (not recommended for a failing drive; always allowed when the source is an image file).

backdown rescue find#

Find photos, videos, documents and more by what's inside them, whatever the file system says (after files were deleted, or the drive was formatted), and save them sorted by kind.

backdown rescue find [OPTIONS] --to <TO> <SOURCE>

Arguments#

<SOURCE>

The drive, partition or card (e.g. /dev/sdc), or an image of one.

Options#

--to <TO>

The folder to save what's found in, on another drive.

--only <ONLY>

Only these kinds: groups (photos, videos, audio, documents, archives, other) or extensions (jpg, pdf, docx, …), comma-separated.

--start <START>

Where to start, in bytes (e.g. a lost partition's start from rescue partitions).

--end <END>

Where to stop, in bytes.

backdown rescue partitions#

Look for file systems the partition table doesn't list (after a drive was re-initialised, repartitioned, or shows as empty). Only reads.

backdown rescue partitions [OPTIONS] <SOURCE>

Arguments#

<SOURCE>

The drive or card (e.g. /dev/sdc), or an image of one.

Options#

--deep

Read every sector, not only where partitions usually start (as slow as copying it).

--json

Print what was found as JSON.

All of them also take the global options --db and --local.

Good to know#

Rescue never opens the index, so sudo backdown rescue … is safe to run; what it writes is handed back to the user who ran sudo. It only reads the source, and refuses to write the image or found files onto the drive being rescued (or, for an image, onto another partition of the same drive unless --same-drive). Exits 2 when an image is incomplete or nothing was found. Browsing a found partition's files, recovering deleted files with their names (FAT, exFAT, NTFS) and copying files out are in the browser's Rescue view, not in this command.

Examples#

backdown rescue image /dev/sdc /media/archive/Rescue/sdc.img
backdown rescue find /media/archive/Rescue/sdc.img --to /media/archive/Rescue/sdc-files --only photos,documents
backdown rescue partitions /dev/sdc
# when your account can't read the drive
sudo backdown rescue partitions /dev/sdc

See also#

• Rescue a failing drive
• Recover deleted files