dd_resue error

[ss1001]

Hi I am absolutly a newbie when it comes to linux. I know dos so I was hoping that helps as I need to use dd_rescue to try and recover some data.

I am using knoppix live DVD lastest version downloaded today. I have a laptop booted with knoppix and have 2x USB devices. 1x a Kingston 1Gb flashdrive and the 2nd a Seagate 2Tb external USB drive. Both sare see and can be browsed to. Kingston sdc1 and Seagate sdb

Now I have a single file on the Kingston and it is not corrupt but I am testing as I cannot get this correct. I run the ffg command and I get an error.

dd_rescure /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdb

This runs without an error, but there are NO files on sdb when I browse to it. (I believe there should be none)

I than run....
dd_rescue /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdb/backup.img

I get an error that the
dd_rescue: (fatal): open "/dev/sdb/backup.img" failed: not a directory

I created a directory on sdb called backup and tried it and I get same error. I also created a file called backup.img thinking that when it encounters it it would let me know if it should overwrite it...but no difference.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks

PS: I tried to initially run the corrupt drive and I am not sure but it went on for days (I think 5-6 days) and had not finished. (the drive capacity was 120Gb)

[kl522]

What am I doing wrong?

You need to have some understanding of device files, file system types ( FAT, VFAT, NTFS etc), mounting of file systems ....etc in order to use the tools effectively.

[ss1001]

Ok I got past the initial error and I did this by actually changing directory to the destination drive i.e. where the actual log file and image file (of the rescued HDD) will reside. I believe there may be a command in Linux similar to DOSes "Path" command ...however I have not investigated this as yet. NOTE IMPORTANT: I did all of this in the "roots" terminal window as the regular terminal window does not have enough permissions. Again I am new to Linux and didn't know how to login as root from the regular command/terminal window.

So I was able to successfully make an image of my Test flash drive with the a single file in it and was able to mount (again here I had to be in the actual folder where this recovers image file is...that Path command mentioned above).

So I than proceeded to try and recover the 120Gb HDD installed in an external USB enclosure. The system saw the drive fine and also reported it as NTFS. I got the image file after several hours and finally mounted the image to find it black with no files. So not sure if the previous attempts with dd_resuce wiped the file clean.

Anyway, I proceeded to recover another drive 750Gb SATA in an External USB enclosure and when I looked at the file system it indicated unrecognized and showed it as FAT. However it reported the drive as a 2Tb drive and not 750Gb as marked in the lable.....

Any 'CONSTRUCTIVE' idea's please ....