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  • Back up main drive

    Main Hard Drive is C. I would like to back it up to Hard drive L (new unused). I would then like to reformat Drive C and then transfer back from drive L to reformatted drive C. As I think I have a bad sector on it.
    Last edited by James; 01-02-09, 13:58.

  • #2
    I don't think that you can do it as you have stated because you would need to reinstall windows and other programs. Drive C is your main system drive so you will need to boot from it, and you can't format the drive you you have booted from. and you won't be able to boot from drive L because it will not have a boot sector.


    Linda
    LindaG

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    • #3
      MOVE
      All your data files (not the applications) from C to the new drive immediately

      If you have a bad sector on Drive C: this is the drive that has all of your operating system on it.


      If that disc fails, you can always reinstall your operating system and applications
      (A real pain, but you should have the installation discs).
      But you will not have your data files that you have created over the years
      Avatar is my Gt Grandfather

      Researching:
      FRANKLIN (Harrow/Pinner 1700 to 1850); PURSGLOVE (ALL Southern counties of England); POOLE (Tetbury/Malmesbury and surrounding areas of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire (1650 to 1900); READ London/Suffolk

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      • #4
        Are you using Windows?

        If so, Go to My computer and right click on the drive you think is faulty
        Choose Properties
        Choose the Tools Tab
        Run Error Checking

        That will have Windows check the disk for you.

        Linda is correct in the information about 'booting' etc.
        If you format Drive C:, you have completely wiped the information off of it.
        Just copying drive to drive will not correctly copy the operating system boot settings.
        Avatar is my Gt Grandfather

        Researching:
        FRANKLIN (Harrow/Pinner 1700 to 1850); PURSGLOVE (ALL Southern counties of England); POOLE (Tetbury/Malmesbury and surrounding areas of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire (1650 to 1900); READ London/Suffolk

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        • #5
          Hi James,

          Having a bad sector is not good. First thing to do is backup all your data.

          This is a cool program I have used and it puts back all your data files back as they was after reformat, its not free but its not expensive get it here www.handybackup.com

          once all your files are safe your need to try and fix the drive.

          1) try this chkdsk /r

          2) if that don't work you have to try and repair the bad sector, now I have used this program many times and it has fix minor bad sector problems, the program is call HDD Regenerator it will tell you how many bad sector's you have and how many it has fixed.

          3) if there is to many and the drive is shot then your have to buy a new hard drive.


          Hope this helps you out, one last thing if you dont want to spend money on the software then just backup data on cd or on a external hard drive.

          But your probably looking at a new hard drive in the near future it probably has more than one bad sector and the worst place to have a bad sector is at the beging of the drive.

          hope this helps you out.

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          • #6
            All drives have bad sectors but the low level formatting etc. compensates for this by avoiding the bad sectors.
            If a drive develops further bad sectors during use don,t bother re-formating or trying to recover the bad sectors dump the drive.
            It will fail in the future and you will lose data.

            Cut your losses and replace the drive.
            Cheers
            Guy
            Guy passed away October 2022

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            • #7
              To do a full backup of your drive complete with operating system and boot sectors you need a drive cloning program. There are several out there, both free and paid for, but this one is quite good, and it's free:

              CONVAR & PCinspector Data Recovery Datenrettung recupero dati datarecovery récupération données

              You create a boot disk so that the program can operate independently of the operating system, select the source drive, select the destination drive (Make sure you get this the right way round, otherwise you will overwrite your c drive with blank information from the new one!)

              Once you have cloned C drive onto the new drive, swap them round in the PC and then you can boot off the new drive and make sure all is in order.

              As previous replies have suggested, if you do have bad sectors BIN THE DRIVE! It is just not worth the risk.
              Co-ordinator for PoW project Southern Region 08
              Researching:- Wieland, Habbes, Saettele, Bowinkelmann, Freckenhauser, Dilger in Germany
              Kincaid, Warner, Hitchman, Collie, Curtis, Pocock, Stanley, Nixey, McDonald in London, Berks, Bucks, Oxon and West Midlands
              Drake, Beals, Pritchard in Kent
              Devine in Ireland

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              • #8
                Acronis True Image is by far the best software for cloning.
                I used to use norton ghost, but not I use Acronis.

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