I have an IDE drive that failed in my PVR, and am attempting to get data off of it. I figured my best bet was to try and clone the drive using dd under Linux. So, I borrowed the use of an IDE server booted a SuSE 8.1 CD, ran the rescue system, and tried to do a dd between /dev/hdc and /dev/hda. the problem is dd fails with an Input/Optput error once the IDE driver gives up on the drive. Typicially the IDE driver spits out a ton of errors on the syslog screen, and tries to reset the bus a few times. Failing that, it eventually generates the I/O error.

So, is there a way to get around this error? Essentially say that I don't care, just keep trying? If I can get at least the later part of the drive back, there is a good chance I can extract the data off the cloned drive, as I have the needed 16 meg boot file that I can later dd to the front of the new drive.

Hopefully the answer is something simple I can feed the kernel at boot time, and nothing involving a new kernel recompile.