advice wanted on cloning a failing(?) drive

allanc · 20 Jan 2013

Greetings!

My drive has given me a blue screen for UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME about three times in the last month. I suspect that it might be getting ready to fail. I have gotten around the problem by using by Windows 7 repair option - it takes about 2 hours to run

I'd like to install a new internal drive, clone the main drive onto it, then switch to that as the main drive. I'd appreciate advice on this both in tools to use and process to follow.

Many Thanks!

Allan

mjf · 20 Jan 2013

(free or paid versions) Macrium Reflect is a very well regarded program here. Have a look at this
v5: How to clone a disk (Clone Disk, v5)

You can get the same end result with imaging but this is the cloning option you asked for.

allanc · 20 Jan 2013

I actually thought of cloning and imaging as the same thing. I basically want to swap the drive out without having to go through a new Windows installation and without losing any data.

mjf · 21 Jan 2013

allanc said:

I actually thought of cloning and imaging as the same thing. I basically want to swap the drive out without having to go through a new Windows installation and without losing any data.

They aren't the same thing. This has been discussed quite a bit on this forum. You can have a look at these 2 links re my view
Cloning Approach:
cloning vs imaging?
Imaging Approach:
Imaging with free Macrium

If you are happy to have the spare HDD sitting around then cloning using the Macrium guide may be easier. The clone should be disconnected when using the original HDD.

We/you are assuming that the Blue Screen isn't due to some corruption of the OS.
So: You should run diagnostics on the HDD, ideally using the manufacturer's diagnostic utility.