Failed iPod - any way to recover data?
Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 11/24/2008 - 20:50.
Hi,
I had a problem with my iPod, which I thought was caused by a hardware fault. After trying all other suggestions, I had to reformat it in Windows.
I haven't done anything with it since then and I don't have a backup of the data.
Is there any way that I can recover the data using the Ubuntu Rescue Remix?
If so, can anyone point me to any detailed tutorials?
Since the iPod has been reformatted, I can't see any data on it, however, I understand that I should make an image of the drive. How can I do that, when there is no visible data?
I'm fairly competent at executing Linux commands, even if I don't always know what I'm doing.
Any assistance would be much appreciated!
Thanks.
I don't own an ipod. So I
I don't own an ipod. So I can't help much. Perhaps someone else can.
But for starters, boot the rescue-remix or simply boot into your Ubuntu desktop and open up a terminal. Run the following command:
tail -f /var/log/messages
and then plug in your ipod. The kernel should detect the device and display some messages which include what device it is. Would you post the output please?
If the device can be accessed as a block device, it should be easy to image it and then data-carve the files from it.
I followed your suggestion
I followed your suggestion and here's the output:
Nov 25 23:06:59 desktop1 kernel: [12526.740039] usb 1-6: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5
Nov 25 23:06:59 desktop1 kernel: [12526.907515] usb 1-6: configuration #1 chosen from 2 choices
Nov 25 23:06:59 desktop1 kernel: [12527.254870] usbcore: registered new interface driver libusual
Nov 25 23:07:00 desktop1 kernel: [12527.332454] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Nov 25 23:07:00 desktop1 kernel: [12527.340501] scsi4 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Nov 25 23:07:00 desktop1 kernel: [12527.352117] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
Nov 25 23:07:00 desktop1 kernel: [12527.352623] USB Mass Storage support registered.
Nov 25 23:07:05 desktop1 kernel: [12532.353644] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access Apple iPod 1.62 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
Nov 25 23:07:05 desktop1 kernel: [12532.367873] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] 58605120 512-byte hardware sectors (30006 MB)
Nov 25 23:07:05 desktop1 kernel: [12532.369496] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
Nov 25 23:07:05 desktop1 kernel: [12532.371870] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] 58605120 512-byte hardware sectors (30006 MB)
Nov 25 23:07:05 desktop1 kernel: [12532.373627] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
Nov 25 23:07:05 desktop1 kernel: [12532.378814] sdc: sdc1 sdc2
Nov 25 23:07:05 desktop1 kernel: [12532.406311] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
Nov 25 23:07:05 desktop1 kernel: [12532.408097] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
How do I image the
How do I image the drive?
Please bear in mind that I need step-by-step advice.
Thanks!
So, your iPod is device
So, your iPod is device "sdc"
If there is no physical damage to the device, you can data-carve the files from it without imaging it first. Open a terminal and change directory to a place with enough free space to accommodate the lost data.
Plug in the device as before and run
sudo photorec /dev/sdc
If you are running from Ubuntu Desktop, you may need to resize the terminal for photorec to run. Just grab one corner of the window and stretch it out a bit.
Follow the prompts on the screen asking what drive to recover and where to save the data. Make it go. Post back the results.
Which partition table
Which partition table type?
The options are Intel, EFI GPT, Mac, None, Sun, or Xbox.
Presume Intel, but would like confirmation please.
................... (iPod
...................
(iPod was re-formatted in Windows using FAT32)
Ran it as Intel/PC... The
Ran it as Intel/PC...
The utility is still running and after 1 hour, has recovered 75 mp3 files, a handful of jpegs and nearly 1500 txt files (?!?).
It says there's another 3.5 hours to go, so I'll leave it running overnight and will hope for the best.
I'm mostly concerned about retrieving my photos, but possible they'll be picked up later...
I have no idea what to make of all the .txt files.
If the iPod was originally
If the iPod was originally formatted as mac, then that would be what you should try to recover.
If your results are not impressive after this first run, try it again but select Mac. The fact that it is currently formatted as intel is irrelevant if it was originally formatted as mac filesystem (HSF+).
The txt files are file fragments.
The ipod has originally
The ipod has originally formatted with Windows, so I suppose Intel/PC was the right way to go.
The results weren't that great; a handful of image files, a LOT of txt files and a fair number of mp3s, however, a lot of the mp3s seem incomplete, i.e. they start half way through a song.
I'll try running it again.
I ran 'photorec' for Mac,
I ran 'photorec' for Mac, but the results were no better. No photos have been recovered at all, which is strange, because a number of songs and parts of songs have been retrieved.
I also tried 'recoverjpeg', but that ran through very quickly and recovered nothing.
Is there anything else which might help, or is it unlikely that I'll get a better result?
Try
Try foremost.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery#Foremost
iPods don't store the music
iPods don't store the music as mp3s, do they? i thought they stored it in aac or something.
The music you buy from the
The music you buy from the internet can be in many formats. I believe that the greater percentage of stuff on Ipods are music that the user has ripped themselves, so it probably is in mp3 format.
Photorec can data carve pretty much all of the current music formats.