Ubuntu - Disk - Rescue data from failing drive using dd

If you try to naively copy data off the drive it fails.

Don't panic. There is an option to dd that can help you get most of the data off:

dd if=/dev/sdc of=/home/me/sdc.dd conv=noerror,sync

If using lvm

dd if=/dev/vg0/failing-lvm of=/dev/vg0/new-lvm conv=noerror,sync

The conv options specify that dd should ignore read errors, and to synchronize the read position with the write position when those errors occur.

The file sdd.dd or new lvm volume could now be mounted:

mount -o loop -t ntfs /home/me/sdd.dd /mnt/old

Hopefully you can recover (most of) the files now.