Imminent disk failure??

Skofab · 03 Feb 2020

Going to look at a friends PC tomorrow, who reports that it throws up a message regarding disk problems/possible failure.
He tells me that the PC will boot up.

I am toying with the idea that I will (if possible) clone the existing disk to a spare. Question is will this do the trick OR will the problem be in some way 'transferred' to the receiving disk.
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
C

Caledon Ken · 03 Feb 2020

Cloning can transfer / copy error.

Think I would go with Macrium backup.

I would also run Crystal Disk Info and a chkdsk C: /f

CrystalDiskInfo – Crystal Dew World

Once installed click on "Function" tab > Advance Feature > Raw Values > 10[Dec]

This presents error values in decimal amounts.

Anything reporting in trouble, yellow or red.

xaccell · 03 Feb 2020

if the problemas are related to the file system, the answer is yes. They will be transfer. If they are SMART problems, no. They won't be copied over. However, depending on how bad the damage is, you might not even be able to create an image from it.

I would run checkdisk first and then image it. Some imaging software will even let you skip disk errors.

Samuria · 03 Feb 2020

If it has had blocks then they will be written to the other drive un less you take special measures it's a bad idea as you don't know what files are corrupt clean install is best option

Skofab · 08 Feb 2020

Tried every which way, in the end I did a clean install.
Many thanks to all for your help

Caledon Ken · 08 Feb 2020

Sometimes that is the best way.... and the fastest.