Getting an install off a dicky HDD..

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richms

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#34946 1-Jun-2009 17:47

Another seagate drive acting up..

Anyway, it will boot and run fine, just really really slow access to loads of the disc. So no worries I thought, just clone it onto another drive.

But during the cloning process the drive will just dissappear - IO error from whatever tool - dd, ntfsclone, ghost etc.

A powercycle is needed to get the drive working again, but the problem is that no tools will restart from where they left off - even if I just powercycle the drive and it comes back (dmesg shows it coming back on the linux based tools) the duplication tools want to restart again, rather then just keeping on going from where they were.

I have copied all my data off it ok, but there is about 200 apps on the drive installed and working that I am not happy with the idea of spending a couple of weeks reinstalling etc so would rather get the install off in one piece.

Its a vista 64 bit on a 500 gig seagate sata drive.

Any suggestions on other tools that will do the job?

Richard rich.ms

stevenz

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#220480 1-Jun-2009 17:57

Bad sectors and data damage are one thing, a faulty controller is another entirely. If you can find the _exact_ same drive elsewhere you may be able to transplant the controller onto it and keep it running long enough to get your data off.

Otherwise I'd suggest finding a tool that can clone the data in chunks and then "cat" it back together. Actually, I'm pretty sure dd can do just that, you'll just need to specify a sector range. If you can get a drive map and find out where the empty sectors start then that might save time.

Generally copying an App to another drive without reinstalling it doesn't work very well anyway as most of the apps you install put data into the registry, DLLs into the Windows folder etc. very few apps install in a "tidy" fashion (hence why I build mine statically and use an INI file for config, I don't trust the registry).

Maybe you could contact the agents? It certainly sounds like a controller fault, and if it's new enough to be 500GB it may still be under warranty?

richms

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#220495 1-Jun-2009 18:49

Yeah, I was hoping for something that would automate that whole process. If there are some files that are missing or damaged its not a big deal since I can get them back from backups.

The vista install seems ok, its towards the end of the disc that the most of the problems are happening which is mainly where my downloads are sitting, and the recheck in the torrent will take care of any missing parts of those.

Richard rich.ms

richms

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#220677 2-Jun-2009 01:14

Well now its disappearing before it even shows in drive management. Turns out it is affected by the dodgey firmware from seagate - I checked when it first happened and it was not affected when I put the model number in.

So have made a support ticket with them to see what the deal is since I recall they did have somethign where they would recover the data since it was their fault.

Did the firmware update but no change to the drives behaviour :(

Richard rich.ms