transferring os from sata drive

I have a desktop computer running windows 7 home premium. Has a sata drive that has bad sectors and is about to die. I have a usb external hard drive that I thought would be possible to use if the os is transferable to it.

What is the best way to accomplish this feat?

smile
whril

 

I use Casper to do these sort of tasks. It is a simple way to clone any drive and it is much easier than the old Ghost progra. Here's a link to a free trial which will give you ample time to solve your problem. ENJOY! www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/casper.html‎

 

Thank you!

I will try it out this weekend and let you know how it goes.

smile
whril

 

There is also Acronis True Image, or if you want one of the best Free Open source tools, there is Clonezilla. http://clonezilla.org/ This is the latest list as of June 27th. http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-drive-imaging-program.htm

 

Not sure if I should post this here or if it is a completely different topic.

I went with the Acronis True Image for the back up, but have encountered a major problem.

When booting up the pc it tells me that the hard drive is bad to back up etc. Pressing F1 I continue to boot. I am able to load the desktop. Then at various times the My Picture folder pops up. Eventually it pops up so fast I can't x it out fast enough causing multiple My Picture folders to load. By multiple I mean any where between a dozen and a hundred.

I can get into safe mode and used crap cleaner to delete the sub-folders in the My Pictures folder. I am unable to delete the parent folder so it continues to pop up multiple times. I have tried manually deleting but this won't do it either.

I have tried the command prompt. It is not recognizing any of the commands.

I can't get into the msconfig to see if the My Pictures are on the start up. I have never had them on start up so that would be quite slim.

The last time I accessed the desktop and started the back up process the folders were coming so fast that I just shut down. It is now saying "Operations are in progress, please wait. The machine will be turned off automatically after the operations are complete."

There is no way of knowing what operations are in progress. I picture a 1,000 folders popping up!

So, number of questions.
1. Can bad sectors do this much damage?
2. How can I get rid of the My Pictures folder?
3. Do I leave the computer on and let it complete what ever operations are in progress?

smile
whril

 

Yes, bad sectors can cause the drive to not be worth pulling anything off. It is a ticking time bomb, ready to die. The longer you play around with it, the shorter the time you have to get stuff off of it.

Unless the stuff is up in the cloud, or you have copies on flickr.com or facebook.com, try to salvage what you can, and then put a bullet in the drive and put it in its grave.

After losing too many drives over the year, I started to keep stuff in multiple cloud drives on the Internet, so that any important info is replicated on multiple places, so I have a copy or pictures, documents, regardless.

 

Putting a bullet in it is not an option quite yet. although everything but about 3,000 songs are saved in other locations my os is not. It is the os I am most concerned with saving. I can not afford a disc or another computer at this point in time. So if there is a chance to save through a back up then I need to grab it.

smile
whril

 

If you have a key for the OS, you do not need to salvage that part of the hard drive, same goes for any other software. The only important stuff is documents. Songs can be replaced, but if you have pictures or documents that you do not have copies of, those would more important.

Just get what you can out of your My Documents folder, then place a copy of those items on a cloud drive, with a local copy on a NAS or 1TB USB drive. Then trash the drive with a minisledge to put it out of its misery.

 

Having a key is a good point. The machine came pre-installed so the number should be on the case.

So now the question would be how long should I leave the computer on and let it complete what ever operations are in progress in the hope of seeing if there is anything else i need to save?

smile
whril

 

You just need to get what you can off that drive, then install the new one, run the restore discs that you made, when you first got the machine (hope you did, otherwise if the key is on the label, download a ISO of the OS that was on there and when it asks for the key, just enter the OEM).

The longer you mess with it, that dying drive can cause other issues. Again, get what you can off the old drive, put a bullet in it and install the new drive.

Any documents or pictures, keep a local copy on another drive, and a copy out on a cloud drive.

 

I was able to rescue everything from the bad drive. Didn't take a hammer to it yet, tho I might in the near future.

Have installed the OS and was working fine. Of course there is an issue that needs addressing. Will post that in the appropriate forum.

Thanks you for you time!

smile
whril