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When running Clonezilla on a NTFS-drive with bad sectors the cloning is interrupted and I get a suggestion from Clonezilla to use the -rescue option to save as much as possible from the damaged drive.
What does the -rescue option do? How do I use it? When should I use it?
The -rescue option is meant to "Continue reading past block read errors." as per this manual.
This means that it doesn't stop when it reaches a sector error. It simply ignores or bypasses them, enabling you to pull off as much data as possible.
If the option isn't selected, CloneZilla will halt and throw a warning message like the one your received.
Therefore you must be extra careful to validate the extracted files for errors. Binary files such as executables and libraries should consequently be dismissed or updated with a reliable version.
Use the -R when you attempt to do a standard clone and fail because you get an error message that says: "The Disk Has Bad Sectors ... Use the -rescue option...". On my machine, it cloned the first partition, skipped the second and asked me to hit Enter to continue and then it moved on to the third partition.
The way to use it is when it asks you if you want to use beginner mode or advanced, you will see the -rescue option and put a check in that box.
You should use this to rescue your disk content if cloning stops at the first read error of a damaged disk.
Select the advanced mode instead of beginner mode and select the --rescue option. Bad blocks will be skipped and cloning will not stop, but some file may be damaged.
