Ubuntu-Rescue-Remix is a live cd/USB toolkit which includes the best Free/Libre, Open-Source data recovery software available.

I've been working on this for a little over a year with a little input here and there and I have been very happy with the results. The Rescue-Remix suits *my* needs perfectly. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of improvement that can be made.

I have found that I can recover as much if not more data using the free/libre tools than with the proprietary tools. Some of the advantages of using GNU/Linux tools for data recovery is that the command line provides a rich environment for dealing with mountains of raw data. I think a lot of the proprietary tools try too hard to provide a pleasant interface to the user, at the expense of leaving some data behind.

On the other hand, nearly every panicked user who, in searching for their lost/deleted files have stumbled upon Ubuntu-Rescue-Remix, have a hard time grocking the command line. That means that the Rescue-remix is not the best solution for everybody.

What can be done to improve this? Better documentation? A GUI?

If you haven't already guessed it, this is a Help Wanted ad. Apply within. Whether it's improving the live CD/USB, packaging your favorite tool, writing documentation or simply posting some of your experiences, any help is appreciated.

Oh, and if you want to create a GUI for all the Free/Libre data recovery tools available, that would be great too! Thanks!

az

Ubuntu Rescue Remix version 8.04 is out.

It features updated packages including Gnu ddrescue version 1.8.

Download the CD image here:

MD5SUM:
9c4f019da1b9d27a469cfbeb5e73dba6 ubuntu-remix-804.iso

Torrent also available: http://www.mininova.org/tor/1422698

To burn an iso image, see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto

Download the USB image here:

MD5SUM:
e480c4a72171203e1384c6a3e6990786 ubuntu-remix-804.usb.gz

Torrent also available: http://www.mininova.org/tor/1422709

To write the USB image to a flash drive, run:

zcat ubuntu-remix-804.usb.gz | sudo tee /dev/sdxX >/dev/null

where "sdxX" is the correct device (sdc1) for example.

Be careful to pick the correct device as writing this to disk will erase everything else on the disk.

If the device does not boot, try installing an MBR onto the USB drive:

sudo apt-get install mbr

sudo mbr-install /dev/sdX # Pick the correct device!

2008/05/19 - Thanks to Justin for setting up the torrents.

I packaged version 1.8 of gnu ddrescue and uploaded it to my launchpad Personal Package Archive (ppa). This is an unofficial package but it seems to work fine.

If you want to stick with official Ubuntu packages, do not add my ppa to your sources.list. You can still install the ubuntu-rescue-remix metapackages by hand. However, if you add my ppa to your sources.list to install the ubuntu-rescue-remix metapackages, you will be getting (the unofficial) gddrescue-1.8.

My ppa:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/arzajac/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/arzajac/ubuntu hardy main

After playing around with the 8.04 ALPHA release I created an easy-to-install USB image for general use. Please test out the installation procedure and let me know if you have any problems:

(note: I updated this to point to the final stable release, version 8.04)

Step 1- Download the latest image:
http://rescubuntu.info/files/iso/ubuntu-remix-804.usb.gz

e480c4a72171203e1384c6a3e6990786 ubuntu-remix-804.usb.gz

Step 2- (This will erase the data on your USB device!) Plug in your USB device and unmount it. You can manually
create a partition for the Rescue Remix. You can even put that partition at the end of your device and create another partition at the beginning for storage or swap space. Make sure the rescue-remix partition is 166MB or greater or else the image won't fit.

Make the partition that will hold the image bootable (Use (g)parted or cfdisk); only one partition should be bootable or else that defeats the purpose.

If you put the storage partition after the rescue-remix image partition, you won't be able to access your storage partition from Windows-based operating system; It "just doesn't work."

Step 3- Write the image to the device:

If your device is the second partition on sdc, then you would run:

sudo zcat ubuntu-remix-804.usb.gz >/dev/sdc2

Step 4- Try to boot the device. If it doesn't boot, you need to put an MBR on the device.

sudo apt-get install mbr

sudo mbr-install /dev/sdc

And then reboot.

Again, if you have any problems, please let me know.