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I have an old hard drive that I put data on, but it died when I tried to retrieve it, and it tells me I have to format it under Windows. Running on Linux now, can Safecopy help me even though I can not mount it?

This is the error I get when I try to mount it:

Failed to read vcn 0x0: Input/output error
for more details.

It says input output error... but I thought that was why Safecopy was made? Any info would be great.

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what is it formatted as? –  strugee Jan 6 at 3:19
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I would first try to make a copy of the disk, or of partitions, with dd. It can be done without mounting. So I no longer worry with hardware once the content has been preserved, and I am not dependent on file system problems while I preserve it. See for example Disk Cloning.

But then I have no experience with Windows, and I have no idea concerning the usability of a NTFS image on Linux today.

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