Useful Tips in Data Recovery

Lesson 8 – How to create image file of damaged drive

In this article, we will look at creating an image of a damaged disk, as well as restoring data using this image. This disk was used in NAS Asustor in a RAID 0 configuration.

Important: The further steps described in this guide are performed at your own risk. Creating an image of a damaged disk may cause complete disk failure . If you are in doubt or the "health" of the disk in S.M.A.R.T. is very low, we recommend contacting specialists for physical repair of the disk.

So, to create a disk image, you need to install and run ReclaiMe Pro software , since this program allows you to set more flexible parameters for working with a dying drive.

  1. After installation, click on the Get S.M.A.R.T. button and wait for the end of collecting S.M.A.R.T. diagnostic data for all disks connected to the computer.

  2. As we can see, our disk has only 20% "health". To see the detailed information, click on the S.M.A.R.T. tab.

  3. The reason of the 20% "health" is Reallocated sectors count; Current pending sectors count and Unallocated sectors count. You can read more about these attributes on this site.

  4. To create an image, go to the Actions tab, select the image type and click Start creating disk image. We will use the default image type - RAW (sector-by-sector). But if there is no enough disk space to create a sector-by-sector image, you can use VHD or VHDX.

    5. Also, during the image creation process, the disk will be automatically excluded from candidates for data recovery.


  5. You need to specify the path where the image will be saved and its name.

  6. Next, you need to set the parameters for the image creation process.

    7. In our case, we have set the following parameters in order not to damage the disk even more, as well as to speed up the process. To do this, we have set the maximum size for all blocks, as well as the maximum timeout during which ReclaiMe Pro will try to read damaged sectors. Once all the parameters are set, click on the Start button to start the image creation process.

  7. Those blocks that ReclaiMe Pro are marked in green. Blocks from which it was not possible to read information are marked in red. During the second read attempt, ReclaiMe Pro will try to read the data from them again, in blocks whose size is set to small block size.

    8. At the end of the process, you will see a message about the successful creation of the image.

  8. As we can see from the final statistics, 11 blocks of 128 MB were deferred (that is, we lost about 1.5 GB of data in the process), as well as that there were more than 160,000 read errors. Also, at the end of the process, you can find out the list of damaged sectors - just click on the Import bad sector list button and save the .csv file.



    9. After opening this file, we will see a list of all the corrupted sectors.

  9. Next, close the SMART window in ReclaiMe Pro. We also see a huge number of reading errors in the main window.

  10. Then it is better to disconnect the damaged disk. After that, restart ReclaiMe Pro and load the created image.

  11. After scanning the disks, we get to a window with disks and partitions. Here we see both a healthy second disk from Asustor and the loaded disk mage.

    12. As we can see, the MD RAID 0 partition from Asustor has been successfully identified. Select it and start the scan by clicking on the Start scan button.

  12. Select the file system - in our case, it is EXT and click Start.


    13. In the pop-up window, you can select automatic saving of saved state files. We recommend using this option, because in case of a power failure or any other problems, you will be able to use these files to continue scanning, rather than starting all over again.

  13. Next, we need to wait for the window informing us about the completion of the initial scan. Typically, by this point ReclaiMe Pro has already found most of the files. But in case of severe damage or a large number of deleted files, you can continue scanning.

    14. Click OK and check the quality of the recovery. Select any file and open it in the Preview. You can use this option to view photos, documents, videos, etc.



    After that, it is enough to select all the necessary files and start copying using the Start copying button.