copy files tool for HDD data recovery needed [Solved]

[msdobrescu]

Hello,

I have a beautiful gem called Sabayon - up to date.
I have a dieing HDD NTFS formatted.
Windows can't mount it, but under KDE, in a USB rack, it is mounted in 20s.
Great job for made by everybody involved, from plug and play to NTFS support.
The drive 'faints' after a while, but I can unplug it and after plugging it in, it start to work again.
I can copy files of at most 1 GB.
I use Dolphin or Krusader.
I have recovered many photos out of it.
Now, I got the following issue: I have a complex directory structure in some folders (> 12000 folders), so the file managers don't have the time to parse them all before the drive becomes unresponsive.
TestDisk or ddrescue (by their own means) can't copy all the files in general (they generate the structures, but 0k files are copied), but I have succeeded with Dolphin or Krusader.
So, I need a file manager that uses a different strategy, that enters a folder, copies files one by one and asks me for overwrite if needed, but not making a list of all files first.
Do you know such tool, or how to make Krusader doing this kind of file copy?

Thank you.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Why don't you use the command line? The cp (copy) command would do what you want. From what you're saying, something along the lines of the following would suffice (obviously change the directory paths to suit your requirements):

Code: Select all

$ sudo cp -iprv /home/msdobrescu/Documents/ /media/newdrive/DocsBackup/

For the meaning of the 'i', 'p', 'r' and 'v' options, see the output of the command cp --help.

[msdobrescu]

GUI applications are here to help us, they give us some better overview comparing to the command line.
But... there is nothing more powerful as the command line also...