HDD about to fail.. best way to transfer?

[ACetylator]

Windows 7 just informed me that my drive is going to fail. Great.

I don't know where to even start or how to go about this. I shut down the machine but I'm not sure how to go about backing up the drive. I need to get a replacement, however, once I get the blank drive, I'm unsure where to go from there.

Ideal: Can I just make an image of the failing drive onto a new one, discard it and plug the image in to the machine and be up and running?:awe:

Less Ideal: get SATA to USB and transfer 500gb painstakingly slow to a new drive.

I guess I'm wondering what hardware and software I'm gonna have to use to pull this off in the easiest way. Help?

 

[C1]

Ye of little faith.

Just buy a reputable manufacturer's "boxed package" HDD of your choosing and it will have the available transfer/imaging software with it in the box along with test utilities.

Usually the procedure is to make the current drive the slave & the new one master (no external box needed, just connect off the internal SATA controllers), boot from the manufactures supplied bootable transfer utility and follow the usually simple forward directions to perform the imaging (ie, exact drive copy of original to new HDD).

Once complete, recommend removing the old HDD from the system and keeping it for reference.

Recommend to do all the above ASAP.
Do not tarry.

 

[ACetylator]

Ye of little faith.

Just buy a reputable manufacturer's "boxed package" HDD of your choosing and it will have the available transfer/imaging software with it in the box along with test utilities.

Usually the procedure is to make the current drive the slave & the new one master (no external box needed, just connect off the internal SATA controllers), boot from the manufactures supplied bootable transfer utility and follow the usually simple forward directions to perform the imaging (ie, exact drive copy of original to new HDD).

Once complete, recommend removing the old HDD from the system and keeping it for reference.

Recommend to do all the above ASAP.
Do not tarry.

Fantastical! We talking WD? Seagate? I've only bought bare OEM drives so I'm not sure what they would come with... or would they all have it? I will investigate but this is indeed joyous news.

 

[C1]

I have used both those manufactures and, in each case, their boxed HDDs have included the needed transfer utility on CD (one of the reasons for purchasing the boxed version).

PS: Wouldnt surprise me if the manufactures provide these utilities as download via their website, but for this case, which requires expediency, I recommend spending a few dollars more at a local store and the box will have everything you need ready to go (used to include, extra cable, mounting screws, installation instructions and needed transfer & test utilities on CD).

 

[Blitz KriegeR]

C1's plan is great, but just in case that fails:

A clean copy of windows on a new drive never hurt anyone. Then you can hook up the older drive and just copy any files you want individually through windows explorer. If the drive is too badly screwed to recover 100% of the data needed for an image, this would be able to recover some if not all of your valuable files without all the wasted GB of re-install-able (is that a word? ) junk.

Cheers, good luck mate!

 

[C1]

That is true (have had to do this a few times in the past for both myself, friends and relatives).

It is "Plan B", which is basically to salvage whichever data/data files you can.

PS: If one is desperate there are additional ideas such as use of "SeaTools" and "SpinRight' which, under certain circumstances, can make a drive useable, at least temporarily - long enough to perform a data copy. However, we'll leave those ideas for or if when they are really needed.

 

[ACetylator]

Looks like I can make a clone of the drive using clonezilla also, so now to find a replacement drive.

I just hope I don't have to do plan B, thats how I've done it in the past and this time I want a straight up clone. I've only been using this comp for 5 months, I was just getting settled in! Thanks for all the suggestions

 

[chusteczka]

Go to the hardware manufacturer's website and download their utility to copy or clone the drive.

 

[bbs lm-r]

Looks like I can make a clone of the drive using clonezilla also, so now to find a replacement drive.

I just hope I don't have to do plan B, thats how I've done it in the past and this time I want a straight up clone. I've only been using this comp for 5 months, I was just getting settled in! Thanks for all the suggestions

I've used Clonezilla in the past for the very reason of just copying my install image from the failing HDD to the good.

The on screen instructions are very simple, even if you're like a noob techie you should be able to follow them easily.

Once the copy is made, the PC will turn off. Remove the failing HDD at which time you may commence the smashing of HDD with your choice of hammers (that's what I do anyway :biggrin.

Keep the good one in, boot up and Windows should detect it and ask you restart.

Then you're good to go.