I have a hard drive that is about to die. It is the hard drive for my OS. It has given me 7 good years so I think I got my moneys worth. I obviously want to get my data off of it. So what is the best way to do this with hopefully as little strain as possible on it? Do I want to just load the OS then straight copy and paste to an external HD or a big flash drive? I have a couple of massive flash drives. I usually use my external HD's just trying to think of all my options. Do I want to load up a live cd and copy and paste that way so there is less OS strain on the HD? Use another computer to create an image? Is there some better option I am not thinking of?
Hard drive about to die
- Thread starter COKEDUDE
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7 years and you don't have a backup in place, hmm.
strollin offers good advice but... depending on how frail your drive is, how long a backup will take and the stress backing up or cloning could put on the drive, it may fail during the process and your data is gonzo.
You have to make a decision - backup the drive and replace it with a new one or, yank the drive now, set it aside, install a new drive, start fresh. Put your old drive in an enclosure and grab what you can get. Using an SSD is nice, no enclosure needed just a sata-to-usb cable.
What ever you do once you get your system up and running (I'm sure you will) -> do a system-wide (full) backup strait away. Windows can do it, Macrium Reflect can do it, etc, for free. Backup atleast a few times a year, a full system backup -> not to a drive in your system -> something outside your system, an external SSD is handy.
strollin offers good advice but... depending on how frail your drive is, how long a backup will take and the stress backing up or cloning could put on the drive, it may fail during the process and your data is gonzo.
You have to make a decision - backup the drive and replace it with a new one or, yank the drive now, set it aside, install a new drive, start fresh. Put your old drive in an enclosure and grab what you can get. Using an SSD is nice, no enclosure needed just a sata-to-usb cable.
What ever you do once you get your system up and running (I'm sure you will) -> do a system-wide (full) backup strait away. Windows can do it, Macrium Reflect can do it, etc, for free. Backup atleast a few times a year, a full system backup -> not to a drive in your system -> something outside your system, an external SSD is handy.
SCANNERMAN
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So it's been 7 years. You never made any backups. Your drive is dying.
I recommend a fresh install on a new hard drive.
First, get a drive that has enough capacity to hold all your personal files. Make sure you also have a second, new and healthy drive for a new operating system to be installed and your Windows activation key handy as well.
Make sure your PC is completely shut off and power cord unplugged from it. Remove side panel to the case and plug in that drive that has all that capacity to hold your personal files. (Might be a good time to vacuum out your case with a non-metallic nozzle.) After you have connected the data cable and power cable to your "new" drive plug that PC back in and turn it on. Don't bother to put the side panel back on yet. You're doing stuff.
Once you've booted up right click the "PC" icon and click on "manage". Find "Disk Management" and click on it. Once your virtual disc service window opens look for the data drive you just installed. Right click on it and click on format. You will want an NTFS file system so make sure it is formatted for that. Once you're done doing this, close out of that Window to avoid any future confusion.
Now click on the PC icon on your desktop again and open it. Your personal files are your documents, your music, videos, downloads, pictures, and desktop. Look on this page for the drive you just formatted and open that drive. The window should be blank. Copy all your personal files (you can use drag and drop) to the new hard drive. Please note that I stress the word "copy". After this you will have a copy of all your personal files on hand, on your newly installed data drive. If you have any other personal files you may have generated elsewhere this is a good time to copy those as well. If you did it right you will have copied from one window (Your PC) to another window (Your data, or storage drive).
Next step. Turn off the PC again. Pull power cord again. This might be a good time to pull the battery and check to see if it has a full charge. Go make a coffee or something to give this a little time. You could even push the power button while your PC is unplugged to discharge any capacitors that may or may not still be holding a charge. Now disconnect your drive with the operating system on it. Put it in a nice, cool, dry, dark place. This is called "cold storage". It's your back up for just in case something goes wrong and you need to get to your o/s. That drive may be on it's last legs but it still has personal data on it that may prove useful in the event of an emergency.
Now put in a nice, new drive to install your fresh operating system on. Connect it to where your old operating system drive was connected. Plug your PC back in and replace the battery if you removed it. With the side panel off this is a perfect time to do this sort of maintenance. You will need to format the NEW drive. You will be able to do this when you install your operating system. Usually the installation process will give you the option of formatting your new drive. I highly recommend a new drive for your operating system.
Insert your installation media and reboot your PC. Install the operating system to that nice, new drive once it has been formatted. Of course you will have your activation key available to type in if and when it is requested. Make sure you get all your Windows updates and your driver updates fresh. It's amazing how much space you will save yourself on your drive doing it this way. All those old updates no longer needed, old drivers, old maintenance files, old and useless files you don't need will no longer be in your registry because it is a fresh installation.
Once this is done you can use the same method you used previously for accessing your data/storage drive to open it and literally drag and drop the contents of each file into the new prospective folders i.e. Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc. If you choose to copy them you'll already have backed up copies of your personal files on your data/storage drive and because they are on a separate drive there will be no conflict of duplicate files. Bear in mind that this does not constitute a full backup.
Further advice: Make sure your System Restore is functioning properly. Make sure your File History is working. And most importantly, make sure you setup a backup drive for Windows backup and make at least one backup to that drive. Making a system image can't hurt either. You could even make a partition for this on your Data Drive where you kept your personal files. I hope this helps. There are short cuts and ways of approaching this quicker but seven years is a long time. Best to start fresh, with a fresh o/s IMO.
I recommend a fresh install on a new hard drive.
First, get a drive that has enough capacity to hold all your personal files. Make sure you also have a second, new and healthy drive for a new operating system to be installed and your Windows activation key handy as well.
Make sure your PC is completely shut off and power cord unplugged from it. Remove side panel to the case and plug in that drive that has all that capacity to hold your personal files. (Might be a good time to vacuum out your case with a non-metallic nozzle.) After you have connected the data cable and power cable to your "new" drive plug that PC back in and turn it on. Don't bother to put the side panel back on yet. You're doing stuff.
Once you've booted up right click the "PC" icon and click on "manage". Find "Disk Management" and click on it. Once your virtual disc service window opens look for the data drive you just installed. Right click on it and click on format. You will want an NTFS file system so make sure it is formatted for that. Once you're done doing this, close out of that Window to avoid any future confusion.
Now click on the PC icon on your desktop again and open it. Your personal files are your documents, your music, videos, downloads, pictures, and desktop. Look on this page for the drive you just formatted and open that drive. The window should be blank. Copy all your personal files (you can use drag and drop) to the new hard drive. Please note that I stress the word "copy". After this you will have a copy of all your personal files on hand, on your newly installed data drive. If you have any other personal files you may have generated elsewhere this is a good time to copy those as well. If you did it right you will have copied from one window (Your PC) to another window (Your data, or storage drive).
Next step. Turn off the PC again. Pull power cord again. This might be a good time to pull the battery and check to see if it has a full charge. Go make a coffee or something to give this a little time. You could even push the power button while your PC is unplugged to discharge any capacitors that may or may not still be holding a charge. Now disconnect your drive with the operating system on it. Put it in a nice, cool, dry, dark place. This is called "cold storage". It's your back up for just in case something goes wrong and you need to get to your o/s. That drive may be on it's last legs but it still has personal data on it that may prove useful in the event of an emergency.
Now put in a nice, new drive to install your fresh operating system on. Connect it to where your old operating system drive was connected. Plug your PC back in and replace the battery if you removed it. With the side panel off this is a perfect time to do this sort of maintenance. You will need to format the NEW drive. You will be able to do this when you install your operating system. Usually the installation process will give you the option of formatting your new drive. I highly recommend a new drive for your operating system.
Insert your installation media and reboot your PC. Install the operating system to that nice, new drive once it has been formatted. Of course you will have your activation key available to type in if and when it is requested. Make sure you get all your Windows updates and your driver updates fresh. It's amazing how much space you will save yourself on your drive doing it this way. All those old updates no longer needed, old drivers, old maintenance files, old and useless files you don't need will no longer be in your registry because it is a fresh installation.
Once this is done you can use the same method you used previously for accessing your data/storage drive to open it and literally drag and drop the contents of each file into the new prospective folders i.e. Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc. If you choose to copy them you'll already have backed up copies of your personal files on your data/storage drive and because they are on a separate drive there will be no conflict of duplicate files. Bear in mind that this does not constitute a full backup.
Further advice: Make sure your System Restore is functioning properly. Make sure your File History is working. And most importantly, make sure you setup a backup drive for Windows backup and make at least one backup to that drive. Making a system image can't hurt either. You could even make a partition for this on your Data Drive where you kept your personal files. I hope this helps. There are short cuts and ways of approaching this quicker but seven years is a long time. Best to start fresh, with a fresh o/s IMO.
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I'm not seeing anything to tell me why you think your HD is failing. ??? What are the symptoms?
If it's truly failing, I'd get my data off of it first, which will work the drive a minimum. Just copy it to a flash drive.
Then if it's still running ok, do a clone of the drive to a new drive.
There is a failure mode, with the older spinners, that makes the drive run really S....L....O....W. A boot-up could take ten minutes or more.
I once cloned one of those drives, and got every bit of the OS and data, but it took two days.
I added a two fan drive cooler to the drive to keep it cool during the process.
Good Luck,
TM
If it's truly failing, I'd get my data off of it first, which will work the drive a minimum. Just copy it to a flash drive.
Then if it's still running ok, do a clone of the drive to a new drive.
There is a failure mode, with the older spinners, that makes the drive run really S....L....O....W. A boot-up could take ten minutes or more.
I once cloned one of those drives, and got every bit of the OS and data, but it took two days.
I added a two fan drive cooler to the drive to keep it cool during the process.
Good Luck,
TM
SCANNERMAN
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It really depends on how big the drive is and he didn't give us much info to go on, as you pointed out. I find the paid version of Mini Tool Partition Wizard Pro Ultimate does a pretty quick job of cloning even the larger old mechanical "Klunk drives". R drive image works in a pinch too. It prob wouldn't hurt to play around with the old drive after getting the personal data off of it and cloning it to an SSD. (I can't imagine why anyone would clone an operating system to another mechanical drive these days.) Unless SMART errors are popping up the drive probably only needs reformatting. It could be used for archives or in a nice little RAID 1 configuration as a secondary until it burns out completely. Or, as I stated earlier, a cold storage drive with o/s intact as an original image back up in case the clone acts up. (I have drawer full of those). At any rate we got no response to our suggestions but this thread might be of some use to others looking for ideas.
Looks like the OP hasn't been back so we may have lost him.
One reason why I don't recommend a clean install on a new drive in this type of situation is because, if someone hasn't backed up their drive/data in 7 years, it's usually a safe bet that they also don't have the installation files/disks to reinstall all of their software. At best they may have a recovery partition on the drive itself that would allow recovery to factory condition.
One reason why I don't recommend a clean install on a new drive in this type of situation is because, if someone hasn't backed up their drive/data in 7 years, it's usually a safe bet that they also don't have the installation files/disks to reinstall all of their software. At best they may have a recovery partition on the drive itself that would allow recovery to factory condition.
SCANNERMAN
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I absolutely recommend a clean install on a new drive in situations like this because if they haven't made any backups by then, they had better get started on saving their personal data first. If their 3rd party software is so old they can't retrieve it online it's probably defunct already or even worse.. causing them to think their hard drive is on its way out because it was not updated. We can speculate all we wish but I took the poster at their word, that is to say, the hard drive is on it's last legs. If that was indeed the case there really is no avoiding getting a new drive and first priority is to save the data before it craters onto a new drive.
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