Replace failing hard drive

cam26

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SMART scan and CrystalDisk are showing that my C drive is failing.

I bought another SSD to replace it. I plan on using a SATA to USB cable to clone old drive to new, then installing.

Is that it? Will BI transfer over and just be plug and play? Same with camera settings?

Will saved passwords and everything else on the C drive transfer as well?
 

SpacemanSpiff

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SMART scan and CrystalDisk are showing that my C drive is failing.

I bought another SSD to replace it. I plan on using a SATA to USB cable to clone old drive to new, then installing.

Is that it? Will BI transfer over and just be plug and play? Same with camera settings?

Will saved passwords and everything else on the C drive transfer as well?
Every drive I've successfully cloned worked that way. It was as if nothing ever happened to the drive. What cloning software will you use?
 

cam26

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Every drive I've successfully cloned worked that way. It was as if nothing ever happened to the drive. What cloning software will you use?
I have no clue! Do you have any recommendations? Free is preferred.
 

TonyR

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To be safe, before the drive fails totally, open BI, go to "Settings" => "About" and export your settings.
On that same "About" page click on "email support"; that'll copy your info onto the clipboard then paste that into a new file created with notepad and save that text file where you can find it; it'll contain your key code should you need it to re-activate BI after a re-install.

I've used AOMEI Backupper Professional with good results when cloning but it's not free.
I recently downloaded and installed Macrium Reflect 7 Free for free but haven't tried it yet. I've heard some good things about it and I like its interface.
 

cam26

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So… I cloned with Macrium. All went well. Powered down computer, removed old HD, put in new HD, and now it’s failing to boot from both drives.
63CE1CB5-13B6-4FB2-9A57-49D25C79FD89.jpeg
I get the above when loading the old drive, that’s why it’s being replaced. Do not get this with new drive. Next two I get with new or old though. Have tried tightening connections with no luck.
AC1A8255-3117-4A1D-8722-105EAED01FE7.jpeg4A1B6EDA-F014-4737-96E6-878B63C95CCF.jpeg
 

avspin

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In order to use macrium you must create a "rescue disk" from within the program to use as a boot disk. I use a cd and make a new one every update. I think you can also use a thumb drive. The computer must use this to boot into. From there it will search for an image to restore.
Did you create a rescue disk? If not, put the old drive back, create disk, replace hard drive and boot to disk. Then follow the instructions.
 

cam26

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In order to use macrium you must create a "rescue disk" from within the program to use as a boot disk. I use a cd and make a new one every update. I think you can also use a thumb drive. The computer must use this to boot into. From there it will search for an image to restore.
Did you create a rescue disk? If not, put the old drive back, create disk, replace hard drive and boot to disk. Then follow the instructions.
Sure didn’t.
Unfortunately, when I put the old Hd in, it still won’t boot.
 

SpacemanSpiff

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....
How to restore image
FWIW... OP is looking to clone an ailing drive, not restore an image. Time is of the essence and creating an image of the failing drive first will be racking up more hours on a sick drive that most likely does not have any to spare.
Create the rescue media, then follow the prompts for Direct disk cloning
 

avspin

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FWIW... OP is looking to clone an ailing drive, not restore an image. Time is of the essence and creating an image of the failing drive first will be wasting precious time.
Create the rescue media, then follow the prompts for Direct disk cloning
In order to restore an image/clone to a new drive, it must be created first.
When I change/upgrade my C: drive I create an image/clone to a separate hard drive either internal or external. Change out the old hard drive, and point rescue disk to the new drive's location so it can write/restore to the new hard drive.
You can't just copy a boot drive to another and expect it to work.
 

cam26

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So… all is well now with the old drive. I figured out that it wasn’t booting because it wasnt getting power. I reset the cables and now have it booted on the original HDD

FWIW... OP is looking to clone an ailing drive, not restore an image. Time is of the essence and creating an image of the failing drive first will be racking up more hours on a sick drive that most likely does not have any to spare.
Create the rescue media, then follow the prompts for Direct disk cloning
That’s right. I’m going to go through that original video you posted for creating the direct disk clone.

In order to restore an image/clone to a new drive, it must be created first.
When I change/upgrade my C: drive I create an image/clone to a separate hard drive either internal or external. Change out the old hard drive, and point rescue disk to the new drive's location so it can write/restore to the new hard drive.
You can't just copy a boot drive to another and expect it to work.
that’s essentially what I did- just clone and plug and play. I did not create a rescue disk to boot from.


Sure you can. I've done it countless times. The link for the video I shared earlier clones a HDD of one size to a larger drive (not to an image). Macrium made the video
So I need to?

1: direct to disk clone
2: create rescue disk and boot from it
3: point to new HDD
 

avspin

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Yes, you can clone one drive to another but cloning is not just using copy command. The assumption I made is he had only one drive installed and need to replace it. If he installed a second hard drive he could clone then unplug/ remove the old one. When it clones it still creates the image but writes it at the same time.
 

cam26

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Yes, you can clone one drive to another but cloning is not just using copy command. The assumption I made is he had only one drive installed and need to replace it. If he installed a second hard drive he could clone then unplug/ remove the old one. When it clones it still creates the image but writes it at the same time.
So originally I used a USB to SATA to create a clone of the original HDD through Macrium. I appeared to have copied the entire drive, so I just assumed it would be plug and play. I did not change partition sizes and should probably just format it and start over.
 
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