tinyapps.org / docs / Recover files from a failing drive without cloning

via Julian Frohmüller's OpenSuperClone 2.5.0 (based on Scott Dwyer's HDDSuperClone) and DMDE running under xak77/77xak's OpenSuperClone-Live:

1. Double click OpenSuperClone icon on Desktop

2. File → New Project → save filename

3. Mode → try applicable direct mode first, reverting back to Passthrough Auto-Detect if unsupported

4. Drives → Start Virtual Disk Driver → OK

5. Drives → Choose Source Drive → double click desired source disk → OK

6. Drives → Choose Destination → NULL (No Destination)

7. Click Connect button at top left

8. Click Virtual Mode 1 on left

9. Uncheck Slow Driver on left

10. Click Start at top left

11. Double click DMDE icon on Desktop

12. Select Devices → highlight /dev/sdv → Advanced

13. I/O Errors tab → check always for Ignore I/O errors → OK

14. Click desired partition (or Full Scan if partition was not found) → Open Volume

15. Select desired files by checking boxes → click Recover... button

16. Select destination → click Recover button → Yes

Notes

• Sources:

  • HDDSuperClone DMDE Targeting Files And Used Space 2020 01 27
  • OpenSuperClone (HDDSuperClone fork) Guide
  • HDDSuperClone Relay Operation 2019 11 27

• Related HDDGURU forum posts:

  • Original HDDSuperClone announcement by maximus (Scott) on 4/16/16
  • Releasing Pro version for free, 7/25/22
  • Source code drop, 7/31/22
  • OpenSuperClone announcement by WildFloorLamp (Julian) on 10/25/22

• YouTube: HDDSuperClone & OpenSuperClone-Live

• DMDE offers a generous free tier:

  "For free you can recover up to 4000 files from a chosen directory, with the unlimited number of repetitions. Other freeware basic features: preview for common image formats, simple partition manager (allowing partition undeleting), a tool to create disk images and clones, RAID constructor, disk editor"

  with reasonable pricing on Express, Standard, and Professional licenes.

• UFS Explorer 10 supports OpenSuperClone virtual drive mode

• The Reverse Mountain Bike Transform: rescuing a dying drive describes a similar file-level recovery, leveraging ddrescue and a purpose-built Python tool dubbed NTFS2ddrescue, "designed to analyze an NTFS Master File Table (MFT) and generate targeted domain mapfiles for GNU ddrescue, enabling the surgical recovery of specific files and directory structures rather than cloning entire volumes." The OSC dev commented on the author's r/datarecovery post that ddru_ntfsbitmap (written by HSC's creator) "allows you to do the same to capture the NTFS bitmap (even less random seek), and also an MFT domain as an option."

• Louis Rossmann: HDDSuperClone & OpenSuperClone vs ddrescue

Optional hardware

DeepSpar's USB Stabilizer requires Windows, but OSC supports using a relay board or YEPKIT's YKUSH USB switchable hubs for power cycling an unresponsive drive. Julian is at work on a dedicated device:

• Asclepius - Companion Hardware for OpenSuperClone
• OpenSuperClone 2.6.0 (Work-In-Progress): "Add support for Asclepius relay and current sensing board"

In the meantime, while the HDDSuperClone documentation states "YKUSH 3 is the recommended board", Joep van Steen (aka DiskTuna, developer of JPEG-Repair & JpegDigger) shares that "I still prefer YKUSH XS as it forces USB 2". JpegDigger natively supports the YKUSH XS and cloning drives, though Joep cautions that "in general I would not recommend it with a spinning disk. If it's in a bad shape constant power cycles may worsen the condition of the drive". See also his USB flash drive keeps freezing / disconnecting – Recover Data.

To use a YKUSH USB switch in OSC, add these steps after creating a new project:

1. Settings → Choose Primary Relay Board

2. Select YKUSH board → OK

3. Settings → Primary Relay Settings

4. Click Test Relay Operation → monitor progress in Terminal window (might be minimized to the task bar) → OK → OK

5. Settings → Advanced Settings → Action to perform on major drive error: → select Activate primary relay → OK

created: 2026.08.20