best program to image or copy a dying hard drive?

[QED]

Can someone recommend me a good program to use to image or copy data from a dying hard drive?

I have a 300GB Seagate with tons of bad sectors, and it's only getting worse. Unfortunately, it's my primary boot drive.

I have a brand new 300GB Seagate that I'd like to use. I know I can get most of the data just by using simple Windows file copy... but I want to make sure the new drive will be bootable-- plus it would be nice to know exactly what files I will miss due to the bad sectors.

I had thought that the Seagate CD that came with drive would have such a utility, but it doesn't appear to.

 

[Ike0069]

I know that WD has software that will make a comlete bootable copy from one HD to another. It can be found on their site and is part of the Data Lifegaurd Tools.

I've only used it once for a friend, but it worked flawlessly and it's free. Not positive if you can use it for other brand HD's, but I believe it does not matter.

 

[blazerazor]

Dont forget to put it in a zip lock freezer bag and let it sit in the deep freeze for at least 24 hrs.

 

[Homerboy]

acronis Migrate easy

/thread

 

[QED]

Originally posted by: Homerboy
acronis Migrate easy

/thread

That looks promising, but do you know how it handles bad sectors?

I'm not looking for a program that's gonna do the impossible and recover that data-- I'm just looking for something that won't bomb out when trying to access that sector.

 

[QED]

bump for night crew response...

 

[skyking]

I've used ghost in that instance, and set the ghost.exe -IR switch from command line to force a sector by sector copy. It grumbled and stumbled a bit, but did complete the image without further input.

 

[WildHorse]

Suggest you simply use XCOPY.

You can read about it here,

Also do a search on Microsoft.com for XCOPY for tons more about what it is & how to make it dance.