mounting .dd files

[m91-30]

I have a .dd file from testdisk on an external hard drive. how do I mount this image to read it?

[anglican]

I have a .dd file from testdisk on an external hard drive. how do I mount this image to read it?

The answer depends on whether you've imaged a partition or the entire device. If it's a partition then something like:

sudo mount -o loop -t auto /home/yourname/drive_image.dd /mnt/disk_image

should be what you need. You need to create /mnt/disk_image first with:

sudo mkdir /mnt/disk_image

If it's an image of the entire device then take a look at this:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=711773

H

[m91-30]

okay, first I entered:

udo mkdir /mnt/disk_image
then I entered:

sudo mount -o loop -t auto /media/My Passport/drive_image.dd /mnt/disk_image

as my image is on an external

then I get:

Usage: mount -V : print version
mount -h : print this help
mount : list mounted filesystems
mount -l : idem, including volume labels
So far the informational part. Next the mounting.
The command is `mount [-t fstype] something somewhere'.
Details found in /etc/fstab may be omitted.
mount -a [-t|-O] ... : mount all stuff from /etc/fstab
mount device : mount device at the known place
mount directory : mount known device here
mount -t type dev dir : ordinary mount command
Note that one does not really mount a device, one mounts
a filesystem (of the given type) found on the device.
One can also mount an already visible directory tree elsewhere:
mount --bind olddir newdir
or move a subtree:
mount --move olddir newdir
One can change the type of mount containing the directory dir:
mount --make-shared dir
mount --make-slave dir
mount --make-private dir
mount --make-unbindable dir
One can change the type of all the mounts in a mount subtree
containing the directory dir:
mount --make-rshared dir
mount --make-rslave dir
mount --make-rprivate dir
mount --make-runbindable dir
A device can be given by name, say /dev/hda1 or /dev/cdrom,
or by label, using -L label or by uuid, using -U uuid .
Other options: [-nfFrsvw] [-o options] [-p passwdfd].
For many more details, say man 8 mount .

[anglican]

sudo mount -o loop -t auto /media/My Passport/drive_image.dd /mnt/disk_image

It's the space between My and Passport. You need to escape it with a \ before the space:

sudo mount -o loop -t auto /media/My\ Passport/drive_image.dd /mnt/disk_image

H

[m91-30]

okay, I typed:

sudo mount -o loop -t auto /media/My\ Passport/image.dd /mnt/disk_image

and got:

sudo mount -o loop -t auto /media/My\ Passport/image.dd /mnt/disk_image

I'm not quite sure how to do this. the image is of and on an ntfs drive, if that matters.

[anglican]

okay, I typed:

sudo mount -o loop -t auto /media/My\ Passport/image.dd /mnt/disk_image

and got:

sudo mount -o loop -t auto /media/My\ Passport/image.dd /mnt/disk_image

I'm not quite sure how to do this. the image is of and on an ntfs drive, if that matters.

The "-t auto" should deal with what type of disk the image is of and it should't matter what sort of disk it's on. I don't quite follow what you mean in the above. Are you saying that you typed the command,pressed [ENTER] and nothing happened you just got your normal prompt back? If so it means that the mount has worked and the disk image is available to use. Try:

ls -l /mnt/disk_image

to see what is on it. If you wanted an icon for the image on your desktop, change "mnt" to "media" and you'll get one. Otherwise just use whichever file manager program you normally use to look at the contents of the disk image.

H

[m91-30]

I'm sorry, it didn't paste in right.

I type the command, then immediately after I hit enter, it gives me the prompt saying I need to specify the file system type.

like this:

mount: you must specify the filesystem type

[anglican]

I'm sorry, it didn't paste in right.

I type the command, then immediately after I hit enter, it gives me the prompt saying I need to specify the file system type.

like this:

mount: you must specify the filesystem type

Ah, that's clearer. You could try "-t ntfs" but I suspect you may have the image of a whole device rather than a single partition. Take a look at the link I included in my first reply.

H

[m91-30]

****. I think it isn't going to let me do this. I couldn't write the complete drive, as I only have a 500GB external. I really hope I don't need to go out and buy a 1TB external to do this.

I tried adding -t ntfs instead of auto, and got:

Failed to read last sector (1372762772): Invalid argument
HINTS: Either the volume is a RAID/LDM but it wasn't setup yet,
or it was not setup correctly (e.g. by not using mdadm --build ...),
or a wrong device is tried to be mounted,
or the partition table is corrupt (partition is smaller than NTFS),
or the NTFS boot sector is corrupt (NTFS size is not valid).
Failed to mount '/dev/loop0': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/loop0' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

also, I tried the link's suggested code as:

sudo mount -o loop,offset=32901120 -t auto /mnt/storage/disk_image /media/My\ Passport/image

and got:

/mnt/storage/disk_image: No such file or directory

I think I adapted it right, but can you please confirm?

I think my problem is, I imaged just a partition, as I meant to, but because it's technically an "incomplete" image, it won't let me do this.

[anglican]

also, I tried the link's suggested code as:

sudo mount -o loop,offset=32901120 -t auto /mnt/storage/disk_image /media/My\ Passport/image

and got:

/mnt/storage/disk_image: No such file or directory

I think I adapted it right, but can you please confirm?

I think my problem is, I imaged just a partition, as I meant to, but because it's technically an "incomplete" image, it won't let me do this.

You need to do:

fdisk -u -l /media/My\ Passport/drive_image.dd

which should show an out put similar to:

You must set cylinders.
You can do this from the extra functions menu.

Disk /mnt/storage/disk_image: 0 MB, 0 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 0 cylinders, total 0 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x41172ba5

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/mnt/storage/disk_image1 63 64259 32098+ de Dell Utility
/mnt/storage/disk_image2 * 64260 78108029 39021885 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(1023, 254, 63) logical=(4861, 254, 63)

Your numbers will be different - you must use the numbers from your output
Take the Start value of the partition you want to mount and multiply it by 512 in this example that would give you 32901120 then you type:

sudo mount -o loop,offset=32901120 -t auto /media/My\ Passport/drive_image.dd /mnt/disk_image

to mount the image at /mnt/disk_image (in the version you used you would have needed to first create a directory called /mnt/storage and then a directory /mnt/storage/disk_image before running the mount command).

H