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I've got a bunch of old disks (about 15 disks, mean age ca. 8 years, mostly USB 2, most less than a TB). Disks marks at least one of them as failing, some Input/Output errors are showing up, rsync also sometimes shows errors when copying. There are numerous file duplicates.

I'd like to coalesce everything on them onto 1 new disk, and then do 1 backup onto a secondary new disk.

  1. Is there an established method of doing this, or do I need to go disk-for-disk using rsync?

  2. Can the method also work if the total data volume before unduplication exceeds target disk volume (but doesn't after unduplication)?

Zubo
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    if you get I/O errors, you should use ddrescue first to create an image of these and then copy from the mounted image, rsync might have problems otherwise. – pLumo May 01 '20 at 21:03
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    You mentioned the drives are USB2... but inside their enclosures, are they SATA-II, SATA-III, SAS, or other? For the sake of speed in recovering these ailing drives, bypassing the USB interface and attaching each in turn directly to the drive controller would be desirable, as if they're on their last gasp, you may get more daya from them before they croak if interfaced directly instead of slowed down through a USB external connection. – K7AAY May 01 '20 at 21:41
  • @pLumo Thanks, am trying that now. – Zubo May 02 '20 at 13:07
  • @K7AAY Thanks, will do that if ddrescue has trouble via USB; good option to keep in mind. – Zubo May 02 '20 at 13:08
  • @pLumo I used ddrescue successfully to create an image of the disk, but when I mount it and run rsync, it also throws I/O errors and the like. Will try https://askubuntu.com/questions/194962/mounting-ddrescue-image-after-recovery-in-over-my-head – Zubo May 03 '20 at 12:41

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