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help recovering data from fdd with bad blocks.

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Const
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help recovering data from fdd with bad blocks.

#1 Post by Const »

Hello to all the people of this forum !

As you can see im am not only new to this forum but also new to debian and linux in general.
My name is Constantine and here is my short story with linux and how i got to install debian jessie 8 on my 2nd hard drive.
Some person from where i work introduced me to debian jessie linux 8 because i needed to copy an old (1st gen) SCSI hard drive and he told me that the best way to it is using the dd command from the terminal (su, fdisk -l, dd). Further more he gave me this debian jessie install cd because according to what he said it will be compatible with my very old hdd. Actually his advice proved very useful and copy was sucesfull.
This is pretty much all the experience i have with debian jessie 8 and linux in general.
A few days ago i found a box with my old floppy disks dating back to 1992. I started copying them to save their contents. I found a set of setup disks for windows 3.1but disk 2 has a few bad blocks. I read about the badblocks command and used it to find the bad bloks numbers. Further google search lead me to 2fsck command that obviously does not work with whatever file system the floppy uses (probably fat 16).
Could someone guide me on what to do to recover the floppy ?

I am sure i will need to do the same in the future with the rest of my floppys.

Thank you so much and have a nice day.

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Re: help recovering data from fdd with bad blocks.

#2 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

Your post is too prolix, please try to be more concise and avoid waffle in future.
Const wrote:Could someone guide me on what to do to recover the floppy ?
Search the interweb for a guide to "fix badblocks linux". I'm bored atm so I did it for you: https://linoxide.com/linux-how-to/how-t ... -in-linux/

Btw:
Const wrote:he gave me this debian jessie install cd because according to what he said it will be compatible with my very old hdd
Debian jessie will be EOL in June and the Linux devs don't usually remove old drivers so you should probably update to the current stable release soon.
deadbang

p.H
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Re: help recovering data from fdd with bad blocks.

#3 Post by p.H »

Repairing bad sectors is not the same as recovering the data.

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Re: help recovering data from fdd with bad blocks.

#4 Post by pcalvert »

First of all, lock the disk so you don't accidentally write to it.

Install GNU ddrescue:

Code: Select all

aptitude install gddrescue
Then use ddrescue to make an image copy of the floppy disk.

Here's a good help page for ddrescue:
http://web.archive.org/web/201908291343 ... i/Ddrescue

And here is some more info:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery
https://www.linux.com/topic/desktop/gnu ... ve-rescue/

Phil
Last edited by pcalvert on 2020-03-25 23:08, edited 2 times in total.
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Const
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Re: help recovering data from fdd with bad blocks.

#5 Post by Const »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:Your post is too prolix, please try to be more concise and avoid waffle in future.
Const wrote:Could someone guide me on what to do to recover the floppy ?
Search the interweb for a guide to "fix badblocks linux". I'm bored atm so I did it for you: https://linoxide.com/linux-how-to/how-t ... -in-linux/

Btw:
Const wrote:he gave me this debian jessie install cd because according to what he said it will be compatible with my very old hdd
Debian jessie will be EOL in June and the Linux devs don't usually remove old drivers so you should probably update to the current stable release soon.
Thank you. i will check it out

How can i update to current stable release ? Forgive me for i have no idea.
p.H wrote:Repairing bad sectors is not the same as recovering the data.
True. Well i want to recover the data, i dont really care about the actual floppy disk.
pcalvert wrote:First of all, lock the disk so you don't accidentally write to it.

Install GNU ddrescue:

Code: Select all

aptitude install gddrescue
Then use ddrescue to make an image copy of the floppy disk.

Will add a link to a tutorial later...

Phil
Thank you ! Ive googled and found this: https://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/
is that the one ?
Last edited by Const on 2020-03-25 23:02, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: help recovering data from fdd with bad blocks.

#6 Post by pcalvert »

Const wrote: Thank you ! Ive googled and found this: https://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/
is that the one ?
That's the correct program, but not the page I was thinking of. Go back and read my first reply again. I've added to it, and will add some more information to it in a few minutes.

Phil
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Const
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Re: help recovering data from fdd with bad blocks.

#7 Post by Const »

pcalvert wrote:
Const wrote: Thank you ! Ive googled and found this: https://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/
is that the one ?
That's the correct program, but not the page I was thinking of. Go back and read my first reply again. I've added to it, and will add some more information to it in a few minutes.

Phil
Thank you Sir !

Const
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Re: help recovering data from fdd with bad blocks.

#8 Post by Const »

I am not sure what am i doing wrong but it seems that i cant find a download link to the iso file :(

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Re: help recovering data from fdd with bad blocks.

#9 Post by p.H »

What ISO file are you talking about ?

Const
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Re: help recovering data from fdd with bad blocks.

#10 Post by Const »

Const wrote:
pcalvert wrote:
Const wrote: Thank you ! Ive googled and found this: https://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/
is that the one ?
That's the correct program, but not the page I was thinking of. Go back and read my first reply again. I've added to it, and will add some more information to it in a few minutes.

Phil
Thank you Sir !
The one mentioned here for ddrescue

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Re: help recovering data from fdd with bad blocks.

#11 Post by p.H »

Mentioned where exactly ? I do not see any ISO file mentioned in this thread.

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