First of all: Thanks for your very fast and helpful response. I copied actually only the partition, not the whole disk: /dd_rescue --force -r1 /dev/sdd1 /dev/sdc1/ The cause for this is that I don't have enough space left on another device to store a whole copy of the faulty disk. I thought it would be possible, like in some examples I found with google, that you can rescue a partition directly. /file -s /dev/sdc1/ says: //dev/sdc1: data/ The disks look like this (/fdisk -l/): /Disk /dev/sdc: 3000.6 GB, 3000592982016 bytes, 5860533168 sectors// //Units = Sektoren of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes// //Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes// //I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes// //Disk identifier: 0xcba506ee// // // Gerät boot. Anfang Ende Blöcke Id System// ///dev/sdc1 256 732566645 366283195 83 Linux// // //Disk /dev/sdd: 2000.4 GB, 2000397852160 bytes, 3907027055 sectors// //Units = Sektoren of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes// //Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes// //I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes// //Disk identifier: 0x3c34826b// // // Gerät boot. Anfang Ende Blöcke Id System// ///dev/sdd1 63 3907024064 1953512001 83 Linux/ If it is not possible to rescue the partition this way I will have to extend my to RAID5 so that I can put the copy of the faulty disk on this one, like Michael explained in his answer. I just hoped that I can avoid this, because it would save me more than 100EUR. As last information: The content of this copy is not totally lost, actually only the last few files I have added. All the other stuff is already stored on the RAID5, only the latest stuff is not contained in this backup. So I don't loose everything if something goes wrong (at least one thing :-) ). Kind regards, Benedikt