I formatted a NTFS hard drive with important data I would like to recover. I would like to clone the hard drive and try to restore the lost files from the cloned hard drive image using Stellar Phoenix recovery software.

How can I clone the hard drive with Linux in a format that this Windows application can open?

I tried Clonezilla but it seems like Clonezilla saves and restores only used blocks in the hard disk.

I would like to know the correct name of what I am trying to do if it is not called cloning.

Thanks

you ould use dd ,, http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ommand-362506/

Yep, dd will copy _everything_, including free space. You can also pipe dd to gzip, bzip2, lzma, etc. to compress the partition image.

Then you can mount the image you made in Linux and use a Linux app to recover files (sorry if you must use Stellar Phoeniz). SystemRescueCd comes with several you can try.

if the partition table is hatched http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk does wonders

^^ is one of those included in SystemRescueCd, I remember

"^^ is one of those included in SystemRescueCd, I remembe" yes

That dd tutorial link was great.

When I tried dd it failed when it encountered errors on the hard drive even when I used the conv=noerror flag. I ended up using dd_rescue like this.

First I install it.

aptitude install ddrescue

Then I made a back up to another computer using ssh.
dd_rescue /dev/sda1 - | ssh username@machineip ‘cat /datarecovery/backup.img’

Problems
1. The image file format Stellar Phoenex could not read. What kind of format does dd_rescue produce?
2. What linux tool(s) can I use to salvage any data from my bit for bit hard drive image?

3. Is there a way I can mount the image in Windows? That would let S.P. do it's magic.

GetdataBack for NTFS can read the image file created with dd_rescue. That was a nice surprise but I want to see what other application are out there that might give me better results. I preffer the results I received with Stellar P. over GetDataBack. But S.P. does not want to open the image.

[UPDATE]

testdisk_win.exe path/to/hadimage.img

This seems to work I will let you know what results I get.

It does not find allow me to restore any files from the previous ntfs file system.

Thanks much

if you restore the image to a empty partition, then use Stellar Phoenex<br>
if windows complains about the partition not formatted then run test disk and repair the partition table and try again with sp

drpt, Thanks
[SOLUTION]
Just take the .img bit for bit hard drive image I created using dd on Linux and palce it on a real hard drive partition that Windows can see then use Stellar Phoenix to recover the contents from the formatted hard drive.

Thanks

These are some of the best collection of sites on how to use the dd command for Linux. Use the first link if you are a beginner.

This has a really good explanation of how to use dd
http://www.backuphowto.info/linux-ba...-disk-clone-dd

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ommand-362506/
http://lists.xensource.com/archives/.../msg00927.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-308821.html
http://wahyupratama.blogspot.com/200...ive-using.html
http://www.debianadmin.com/recover-d...-ddrescue.html
http://www.pantz.org/software/dd/dri...hsshanddd.html
http://www.lupaworld.com/24775/viewspace-120130.html