DDRescue-GUI Windows bundle released! Get it now

Hi all. It’s taken a while, but the DDRescue-GUI Windows bundle is now available. It’s a far more convenient way of installing DDRescue-GUI on Windows, and has these advantages over the old method of manually installing Cygwin and dependencies:

  • Much smaller download size (150MB instead of around 1 GB)
  • Much easier and faster installation
    • Previously the whole process could take up to an hour or more, and involved following complex command-line instructions precisely.
    • Now everything is fully automated, and installation should only take a few minutes.
  • Much less disk space required (500MB instead of 1+ GB, though I’m working to further reduce this).
  • The bundle contains all dependencies, so what you download is exactly the same as what I’ve tested.
    • With the manual method you will end up running slightly different and newer versions of dependencies.

I’m still working to get DDRescue-GUI into the official Cygwin repositories, but for your average users it’s far better to use the bundle I’ve made instead. You can download it from launchpad.net or this website now, and an updated user guide is coming very soon to fully cover Windows users.

Note: You may need to add an exception for DDRescue-GUI’s install folder in your antivirus software. This is because Cygwin, which this bundle takes advantage of, is known to confuse some antivirus programs. For the record, I have had no trouble using this bundle with Avira Antivirus.

Note 2: If you save to the home folder within DDRescue-GUI, the files will end up in Program Files\DDRescue-GUI\home instead of on your actual Desktop, or Documents folder and so on. This will be fixed in the next version of DDRescue-GUI.

To save files in your actual Desktop or Documents folders, navigate to /cygdrive/c/Users/<username>.

That’s all for now, but stay tuned – I have some interesting ideas for upcoming posts.

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About Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty

I'm a self-employed software developer working on Free Software projects, as well as studying for my degree with the Open University. Being pedantic when it comes to detail is fortunately useful for both of these things! A strong believer in free software, I have a few pay-for programs available under the GPLv3 and enjoy reporting bugs and helping to improve various open source projects, including volunteering at Wimborne Model Town to work on their river control system.

12 Responses to DDRescue-GUI Windows bundle released! Get it now

  1. Hello Hamish,

    Thanks so much for this Windows bundle. I happily purchased a copy.
    However, I’m a little stuck here on Windows. After I start XLaunch then try to run “start.bat” from inside the DDRescue-GUI folder; I get this message: “Please start the X server with XLaunch on display :0 and then start DDRescue-GUI again.”

    Looking forward to your response.

    Kind regards,

    Thaharim

  2. Antoine says:

    Hello, i’m trying to use the package which i purchased here (for a small price !) and i have problems.
    First it looks like it needs to be installed with administrator right click to put X properly.
    Then windows defender said there is a trojan :
    Trojan:Win32/Ymacco.AA7C i did not delete the file but “quarantine” it. Maybe i shouldn’t have.
    After that i find no .exe only a start.bat.
    Nothing launch.

    • Thank you for helping fund development of DDRescue-GUI.

      What do you mean by putting X? Installation shouldn’t require right clicking as administrator.

      The Trojan warning will be a result of antivirus programs not liking Cygwin (Cygwin.org) which DDRescue-GUI uses on Windows – this is quite well known.

      You’ll probably need to create an exception in Windows Defender for the folder where you installed DDRescue-GUI. What file was flagged?

      I think it might be difficult to do a support request on WordPress, so perhaps you could post this on my support forum: hamishmb.com/forum?

  3. auser says:

    Hello, I had the same issue. During installation Trojan:Win32/Ymacco.AA7C was detected and auto quarantined by windows defender. It had to be manually restored in protection history list in order to allow the DDRescue-GUI.exe file to be returned.

  4. John says:

    I think its worth calling out that the /home/ location in the GUI is mapped to the programs install folder path, i.e. /home/Admin/ maps to C:\Program Files\DDRescue-GUI\home\Admin in my case.
    Was looking in C:, users etc.
    Anyway great job and thanks.

  5. Tony says:

    Please start the X server with XLaunch on display :0 and then start DDRescue-GUI again.”

    Help please. My X server is starting but still error.

  6. angry internet nerd says:

    The download link does not work! Please fix it. This site (https://www.hamishmb.com/html/downloads.php?program_name=ddrescue-gui) says that “Invalid Program Name”.

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