Reconstructing files with Magic Rescue

Loopall, 123RF

Magical Lifesaver

Erik Bärwaldt

Faulty unmounts can quickly lead to disaster with SD cards and USB sticks. Magic Rescue can get your data back.

Flash memory media have largely replaced CDs and DVDs; yet, the popular USB sticks and SD cards have their disadvantages. If you remove them from the computer without first unmounting them cleanly, you often get inconsistencies that make the data unreadable. With Linux and the Magic Rescue tool, however, you can rescue your data in many cases.

Magic Numbers

Unlike many conventional tools, Magic Rescue [1] doesn't depend on the mapping tables of the filesystem to do its work. Instead, it uses "magic numbers" of the different file types. The software can do its job even when partitions have corrupted file allocation tables that can no longer be reconstructed with any certainty.

The so-called magic numbers that Magic Rescue uses for data reconstruction exist in almost all files in the header data before the payload data and labels. These magic numbers are in a standardized format for each file type.

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