Hard disk is failing, how to change to a new hard disk?

pcwin · 23 Jul 2015

My hard disk (C drive where the windows 7 is) is going to fail soon. It has some bad sectors and some corrupted parts and I encountered blue screen that says something about hardware failure. When my Acronis is doing backup, Acronis stopped half way because it cannot access some sectors to do the backup, it was fine previously.

I can still login to windows (depends on luck).

1. I want to change to a new hard disk, what is the best/fastest way to do it?

2. If I copy the whole disk to another new disk, would I encounter problems copying half way since there a

3. Will the data copied to new hard disk be incomplete since there are bad/corrupted sectors on my old hard disk?

4. My old hard disk is 1TB WD Black. What should I use for the new hard disk? Does it need to be same size and model?

Thanks a lot. Greatly appreciate your help.

(I do know how to change a hard disk and reinstall Windows 7 (Windows 7 updates took a long time) and install all programs again and setup again. That would take a few days so I am wondering if there is a faster way.)

AddRAM · 23 Jul 2015

If you don`t have a complete backup image, then there`s nothing you can do about it. You`re gonna have to re install windows.

Get your data off before the drive dies.

Your new drive does not have to be the same size and model, you can get whatever you want.

pcwin · 23 Jul 2015

I have complete image done by Acronis. Acronis was make backup successfully for many months, until one day (this Tuesday) it stopped halfway while doing backup and display a cannot access sector message. Then after 2 days (today), I encountered blue screen.

I have not recover a PC by using Acronis backup, how should I do it? (I mean I have never done changing a new hard disk (that contains C:) and use Acronis to restore. I only restores data files before.)

GokAy · 23 Jul 2015

Where did you backup the images to? Are they on the failing drive? Try to get them off to an external drive as soon as possible if so.

Are you using the full featured True Image or one from the HDD manufacturer? You can use Acronis bootable media (CD/USB) when no Windows is present. It is easy, boot with the CD/USB, select the backup, the destination drive and pretty much that's it. If you can't see the backup files, click the browse button.

phenix · 23 Jul 2015

1st an external backup is a must! I use Clonezilla-live to do that. It is a free program.
2nd if you partition your drive to keep Windows in a separate partition then you
never lose the Windows OS. I partition my drive with MiniTool Partition Wizard.
This is an excellent free partitioning program.
I have my drive partitioned into 4 parts: windows, pictures, other and other.
Since my HD also failed I replaced it with a Kingston SSD and installed windows in it
using Minitool Partition Wizard. Worked like a charm. I run my other 3 partitions on a
spinner and this works just great.
Good Luck

gregrocker · 23 Jul 2015

Clean Reinstall Windows 7 if you have any less than a perfect install.

If you do then you can image it over using an app like our favorite here, free
Macrium Imaging - Windows 7 Help Forums

Get an SSD which is lightning fast, faster than a new high-end PC without one.

Wishmaster · 24 Jul 2015

You can do it 1 of 2 ways, assuming theres at least 1 image thats not corrupted.

1. RESCUE MEDIA
In Acronis you can create Rescue Media. You'll need a blank CD.

Once you have that, remove the failing drive and install the new one. Leave the drive with the Acronis Images connected. Then boot from the CD and restore the last working image to the new drive.

Are your Acronis Backups on a separate drive or the same drive? If same you may have issues restoring.
But its much the same process. You'll want to connect the new drive and boot from the Acronis CD. Restore the image to the new drive then shut down/ Then remove the old drive and boot up.

2. FROM WITHIN WINDOWS
Shut down and install the new drive.
Boot to Windows on the old drive. Start Acronis and restore the last known good image (FULL DISK IMAGE) to the new drive.
Shut down, remove the old drive and boot Windows on the new drive.

Keep in mind, if its just a partition image that you have and you do not have any full disk images, the new drive may not boot.
If so, don't panic. You'll just have an extra step.
Just boot from your Windows disk and do a system boot repair. Then you'll be fine.

Windows should have its own drive, and not just a partition.
And Acronis should have its own drive or its own partition on a separate drive (Any drive where Windows is NOT installed)

If you simply partition everything out, its nice for organizational purposes, but if the drive goes bad you loose everything.
Including your backups if they are on the same drive. In this case, if the images are on the same drive, and corrupted, it may render them all useless.

Best to keep Windows and back ups on different disks. I do agree, go with SSD if you can. But even if you don't keep Windows and Backup DATA on different disks. You can even use a small external for backups.

If this is all on the same disk, I honestly do not think Id risk it. Just start over.

GokAy · 24 Jul 2015

Windows having its own drive is overkill and will increase backup sizes if you install non programs to C. 100-120GB Windows partition will be enough factoring in a minimum 15% free space.

If you can add a second drive then backing up to it is better to avoid reading and writing to the same drive but in case of most laptops a separate partition would be alright.