HDD failing, need to clone for replacement HDD - Tips needed

Hello,

HDD - WD 7500BPKX model.

My 6 month WD - Black Drive all of a sudden started to fail. Got Win-7 error dialog box that an error has occurred and I need to back up data before HDD fails (something like that, not exact words). Intel SMART also fails.

Now I get only SMART failure and I go to Intel Rapid Storage and set the HDD to normal.

Called WD who are sending in a replacement.

I used Kari's tutorial to set my User Profile on another partition while installing Win-7
So System is on C:\;
VMs on D:\
User profiles to E:\.
Most important Data on F:\

I am trying to figure out the best way to clone this HDD to the new one that I'll be receiving shortly.

Any pointers/guidance would be highly appreciated.

From event log:
Windows Disk Diagnostic detected a S.M.A.R.T. fault on disk WDC WD7500BPKX-00HPJT0 (volumes E:\;F:\;C:\;D:\). This disk might fail; back up your computer now. All data on the hard disk, including files, documents, pictures, programs, and settings might be lost if your hard disk fails. To determine if the hard disk needs to be repaired or replaced, contact the manufacturer of your computer. If you can't back up (for example, you have no CDs or other backup media), you should shut down your computer and restart when you have backup media available. In the meantime, do not save any critical files to this disk.

Ran WD diagnostics that failed with the following:
est Option: QUICK TEST
Model Number: WDC WD7500BPKX-00HPJT0
Unit Serial Number: WD-WX21A1470306
Firmware Number: 01.01A01
Capacity: 750.16 GB
SMART Status: FAIL
Test Result: FAIL
Test Error Code: 06-Quick Test on drive 1 did not complete! Status code = 04 (Unknown failed test element), Failure Checkpoint = 96 (Unknown Test) SMART self-test did not complete on drive 1!
Test Time: 05:19:00, September 17, 2015


Looked at the result and see:
Reallocated Sector Count ID=5, Value-140, threshold-140, worst-140 Fail

I would think that it would be best to do a sector to sector cloning of your failing drive to a good drive connected to one of the other SATA port. That good drive should have a capacity greater than your system drive.

Use SystemRescueCd. Download - SystemRescueCd

See this post on how to do it WD EXTERNAL HARD DISK 1TB suddenly "unallocated" and "not initialized"

In step 4 in the above post use the following command

4. Next against the command prompt type:ddrescue -d -f -r3 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc recovery.log [ENTER]
( Note: ddrescue[space]-d[space]-f[space]-r3[space]/dev/sdb[space]/dev/sdc[space]recovery.log)

Note: Replace sdb and sdc with the correct device nomenclature of Source disk(in your case the failing disk) and Destination disk ( in your case the other good disk you had plugged into the other SATA port) as obtained in step 3. Make doubly sure.

If cloning is completed successfully, you can then remove your problematic drive and connect the cloned drive in its place. Your system should boot normally.

The advantage: ddrescue not only clones but also tries to recover the data in bad sectors in its second and third passes.( The first pass will clone the good sectors and may finish faster than the second and third pass trying bad sector recovery.)

A successful ddrescue cloning by dragonballz4 here: External hard disk unaccessible

And that was based on this: Best method/tool for cloning a failing HDD for Data Recovery?

Good Luck.

I would get your personal data off the HDD then either restore an earlier system image to a new HDD or a clean install and replace your data. Making a system image of a bad HDD and attempting a restore to a new HDD is not a good idea IMO - you may have problems down the track.

jumanji said:

I would think that it would be best to do a sector to sector cloning of your failing drive to a good drive connected to one of the other SATA port. That good drive should have a capacity greater than your system drive.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the information.

WD is replacing old HDD with an exact model, so capacity will be same. New HDD will NOT have a higher capacity. Will that cause an issue?

If I backup my VMs from D:\ and Important Data from E: and F:\ then the old HDD will not have as much data and I can create an image of all partitions. Real concern is because C: is my system drive and e: has User profiles and data and hence I'm more interested in either full cloning or imaging with most data backed up.

Another question is do I need to format and partition the new HDD in the exact manner as the old HDD. If so, how do I find the exact size of each partition of old HDD?

Am a little confused on how to restore. Should I
- attach new drive to laptop (with the above question answered)
- attach usb external drive containing image to laptop
- boot with Macrium Recovery disk
- Restore
Am I missing something?
Also, what would happen to my licenses for Win-7, Office-2013 etc. etc.?
How do I handle System Partition 100MB?

Thanks,

mjf said:

I would get your personal data off the HDD then either restore an earlier system image to a new HDD or a clean install and replace your data. Making a system image of a bad HDD and attempting a restore to a new HDD is not a good idea IMO - you may have problems down the track.

Click to expand...

My position is precarious. I do not have the expertise to figure out who between the two of you is right.

So who on this forum will choose to be the DECIDER?

nkaufman said:

mjf said:

I would get your personal data off the HDD then either restore an earlier system image to a new HDD or a clean install and replace your data. Making a system image of a bad HDD and attempting a restore to a new HDD is not a good idea IMO - you may have problems down the track.

Click to expand...

My position is precarious. I do not have the expertise to figure out who between the two of you is right.

So who on this forum will choose to be the DECIDER?

Click to expand...

It's your call.

^Rightly said.