My point about the original drive is that, yes, we have to work on the original drive to begin with, but it is safer to clone the original drive and attempt the various means of recovery from the clone. If you are able to get everything back in one go, great doesn't matter, but if you need to do multiple recover attempts and the like you increase your chance of worsening the drive condition and losing any ability to recover.

And hey, I said it wasn't me....I swear, lol.

AlphaA