==== ddrescue [not dd_rescue] ==== from the info page.. Rescue the most important part of the disc first. ddrescue -i0 -s50M /dev/hdc hdimage logfile ddrescue -i0 -s1M -r3 /dev/hdc hdimage logfile Then rescue some key disc areas. ddrescue -i30G -s10G /dev/hdc hdimage logfile ddrescue -i230G -s5G /dev/hdc hdimage logfile Now rescue the rest (does not recopy what is already done). ddrescue -r3 /dev/hdc hdimage logfile Example 1: Rescue an ext2 partition in /dev/hda2 to /dev/hdb2 ddrescue -r3 /dev/hda2 /dev/hdb2 logfile e2fsck -v -f /dev/hdb2 mount -t ext2 -o ro /dev/hdb2 /mnt Example 2: Rescue a CD-ROM in /dev/cdrom ddrescue -b 2048 /dev/cdrom cdimage logfile write cdimage to a blank CD-ROM