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create image of existing drive

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Hi,
My PC's HDD is failing. I ran Spinrite and it indicates failure soon. Can I image the existing HDD to another HDD that I attach. Both are SATA HDD's?
Thanks,
Mark
I have another pc that I could add another HDD and the one HDD I want to clone/image. Would that be a better method?

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Is the failing disk a system disk? What OS are you running? Have you checked the disk for errors?

Thank you for your post.. The disk is system disk on original pc. The OS is W XP and I ran Spinrite level 2 and 4. Spinrite indicates HDD failing. I have additional pc's to use to accomplish this.

Are you familiar with using a command prompt?

Thank you..I am
Also, can I use Acronis bootable media and clone existing drive to new WD drive.
I am using the Western Digital version of Acronis

Please run the chkdsk command using and elevated command prompt. Post back the results including any error codes.

Bob,
Thank you for the post. I trust Spinrites diagnosis on the drive. It clearly indicates a imminent failure. I created a bootable USB drive with Media Builder and tried it on the PC. I'l keep the forum posted.
Mark

I ran Acronis 2013 Media Builder, WD version and a clone of the drive completed successfully. I shut down and rebooted and it stops and the screen is blac. The indicator light on the monitor is green.
Any thoughts?

I would say your source drive is corrupted, clone created. same corrupted image. Purpose of chkdsk was to find what errors existed and make repair if possible so that clone or backup restore would produce a bootable disk.

Also.. the original disk that I am using as the clone will boot into W XP It is very slow doing that and after in is in Windows it is very slow.

Oops!

I removed the source drive and installed it on my bench pc. Ran chkdsk and it indicated no problems. How can I copy the text so I can post?

Last line of result found no errors, correct?

yes
When I rebooted the computer I get this error
could not find kernel image/rescue/grub.exe
boot:
Some research indicates problems using a usb drive to run Acronis??

Please bear with me a bit, am dealing with family issue. back soon

Ok, given that chkdsk returned no errors it is safe to assume that there are no data or physical errors on the disk. That would lead me to believe that based on the fact that you say the disk runs slow, boots slow, and Spinrite indicates disk failure soon that there is a mechanical problem with the disk. Have you noticed the drive making any noise?

Since your clone attempt failed I wonder if your attempt at that was done correctly. I am providing a link that will give you detailed instruction on the clone feature of TI 2014. Read through it and make sure the steps you took are what the instructions say. Also I encourage you to read the General Information page as well as it makes note of some points that get overlooked.

http://www.acronis.com/support/documentation/ATIH2014/index.html#9042.h…

If you are cloning to a disk of a different capacity you should do a manual clone and use the proportional partitioning option to do the clone. TI will then adjust the partition(s) accordingly.

It is also advised in the pages of this forum that a backup be done of the disk using the disk mode or disk image feature of TI and then restore to the new disk that image. This procedure is a bit more accurate as far as how the data is structured onto the disk than a clone but personally I think you can do it either way.

Hope this helps.

Thank you Bob,
Yes, the drive is clatters, sounds like heads hitting platters. I will follow read and follow the instructions. I also want to point out in case it matters, I am using Acronis TI 2013 provided by Western Digital for free. It does have limited functionality. I have also created a DVD rescue disk.
Not sure if it matters, both drives are SATA, target 160 GB and source 120GB each with 1 partition other than what Windows creates and no master/slave designation is used.
I have appointment at 9 will be picking up after 10.
Mark

Since failure is imminent, you have few options. The best option is to run a disk and partition backup of the entire disk, using the sector by sector option in the backup settings. This option will include all the sectors of the disk, including ones that don't have data. The benefit of doing this is to be able to recover data if the file system gets corrupted.
The benefit of doing a disk and backup is that you get the data off the disk, regardless of whether the disk you will restore to is bootable or not.
You also have to make a choice to avoid using the disk (doing clones and backups) before it completely fails.

There is no assurance that you will get out of this without data loss.
You can do the backup using the recovery CD also.

Pat,
Thank you for your post.
I have external USB drive to backup disk. Would that be best practice to use it?
Mark

http://www.acronis.com/support/documentation/ATIH2014/index.html#7943.h…

Yes use the USB drive for backup. Choose a Disk Image or Disk Mode option when creating the backup so as to recover as much data as possible. Hopefully luck will go your way and you can backup all data on the drive.

If a full disk backup is achieved review the link supplied above to perform the recovery of the backup to the new target disk.

Regards.

Bob

Thanks Bob...giving it a shot. Like you said, hopefully lady luck is on my side.
When I get to the target archive and browse, I pick the target backup drive and generate name. The name is d:/mybackup.tib. I click ok and it tells me to type file name in correct format. Stuck again

Leave off the .tib

Mark,
Perhaps I am mis-understanding but do NOT include the drive letter d:\.
Just type the file name. Extension is not needed from the user as Bob has indicated in prior posting.
Part of the preliminary to typing the file name is for the user to use the browse to destination directory tree and browse to the disk and folder being used as the target so the path and disk is already known and only the actual file name is needed.