So I've decided to clone a HDD with Bad Sectors

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jsholydiver

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I don't know much about computers.. I have a Emachine with windows 7 currrently and my hard drive has been having issues. It has bad sectors (Had them before i completely reformatted and has them now as well). My question is, if I make a clone of my old HDD will the errors but moved over to the Clone as well? I just dont want to have the same issues with a brand new HDD
 
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ArtPog

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A clone is a clone is a clone. If you clone garbage, garbage is what you get.

HOWEVER
A few things...
1. Some disk-cloning programs will balk at carrying out a disk-cloning operation if they detect a failing or defective drive; others couldn't care less; they'll clone the contents of the drive regardless.

2. You could give it a shot. There's really nothing to lose. Should the disk-cloning operation fail for any reason and the result is a dysfunctional - unbootable drive you always have the option of re:formatting it.

3. Now if the d-c operation apparently completes successfully (in the sense that it clones the entire contents of the "source" drive), obviously you may have to deal with corrupt data assuming the source drive's "bad sectors" have adversely affected the data which has been cloned to the new drive.

4. So it's your choice. Again, if worse comes to worse you might have to repair or reinstall the cloned data on the destination drive.

5. So all in all you might want to give it a shot.
 
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daniel_542

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If you run a full bad sector test of the drive before you clone it. Clonezilla will copy everything it can read properly from one drive to another. This will minimise damaged files (though it wont be 100% devoid of corrupt files) and you should regain most of your data on the drive successfully. Hope that helps you
 
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jsholydiver

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First, thank you for your reply this pretty much answered 90% of my questions. I believe my HDD is failing because of physical damage (Likely old age - 7 years old) So I was hoping the new HDD would help solve long loading times and the "Window's detected a problem with your Hard Drive"

I bought an "All in one Docking station" and I was going to pull the old HDD out and have it cloned through that.. if everything goes well, could I simply re-download any data that might be corrupt on the new HDD? (Freshly reformatted drive only have Diablo 3 and World of Warships on it)
 
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jsholydiver

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I'm currently doing a chkdsk and repair through command promp, its taking forever to do it though.. I bought an All in one docking station to do the cloning so i'll have to take the computer apart which is fine.. when it put it back together I'll probably run clonezilla(Is this a free program?) if i have any issues, thank you for your reply, you did help!
 
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jsholydiver

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I'm glad to hear it won't copy the physical damage lol probably sound stupid but that is legitimately encouraging to know lol. Thank you for the reply!
 
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ArtPog

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Assuming the disk-cloning program performs without a hitch it will clone the entire contents of your source disk to the destination disk, including, of course any data that might be "corrupt". Assuming the newly-cloned drive boots to the OS and is a working drive it still will contain the "corrupt" data, whatever they might be. It would then be up to you of course to first determine the identity of those corrupt files and replace them.
 
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daniel_542

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Suggestion: After cloning - if your system successfully boots up, I would recommend running SFC /SCANNOW from an administrator command prompt AND a FULL defrag before attempting to use your system for anything intensive. This will ensure integrity of Windows system files and make sure all files are in one piece before you do anything major with them.
Hope all goes well for you.
Let us know your end result.
 
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ArtPog

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Daniel's suggestion is a good one re running the sfc /scannow command following a successful disk-cloning operation since you're obviously concerned about corrupt data. We even routinely run that command from time-to-time as a precautionary move.

Since you're running Win 7 presumably you do not have the built-in command as in 8.1 & 10 to access the "Command Prompt (Admin)" command that's found in those latter OSs (unless, of course, you already have a shortcut installed on your Desktop). Assuming you don't it would be useful to create such a shortcut, as follows...

Creating an elevated command prompt" (via a Desktop shortcut)...
1. Right-click on an empty desktop space.
2. Click New > Shortcut.
3. In the "Type the location of the item" box enter "C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" and click Next.
4. Name the shortcut "Elevated Command Prompt" and click Finish.
5. Right-click on the desktop shortcut and click Properties.
6. Under the Shortcut tab click the Advanced button.
7. Check the "Run as administrator" box and click OK, OK.
8. Double-clicking on the shortcut should open the command "C:\Windows\System32".
9. If desired you can pin to Taskbar or pin to Start menu or just leave it as a Desktop shortcut.

So you'll be easily able to run the sfc /scannow utility from the admin. prompt.

Now of course after (hopefully) the results are favorable in that the system finds no faults with any system files, or if it does, it's able to correct them, then you should go on to other "housekeeping" re your system, e.g., Disk Cleanup, deleting unnecessary programs, checking your startup for a reasonably clean boot, running anti-malware programs - the usual stuff.
 
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daniel_542

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Even quicker. Click start menu - type in cmd then right click the cmd.exe option at the top and choose "run as administrator"
Et voila, 1 elevated command prompt. Lol
 
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jsholydiver

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Well apparently the Docking station that I bought is a POS so when I begin to clone the Old HDD to the new HDD it disconnects. I believed I bought a SATA to SATA Docking station but because it's Chinese I guess there was a translation error and it's SATA to IDE so I had to try to use the old HDD in the desktop and clone it using a USB connection going back to the Docking station. I can't get it to clone. During the very beginning process of the cloning it makes a sound like it disconnects and reconnects then i get a message saying the clone has failed. So I decided to forego even trying to clone it anymore (The frustration level is real lol) and I was just going to try to install an OS to my new drive and just re-download everything however... my new HDD when hooked up doesn't even go to a BIOS screen. It goes to the Emachine start up page, then to a page saying my Hard drive needs to be replaced (My old HDD did the same so no idea why its doing this unless this one is bad too) then to a completely black screen with a single blinking vertical line. I'm at a loss.

You all have been very helpful, and I know if I didn't keep having issues with every single thing I try that one of the suggestions would have worked.
 
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daniel_542

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Check all connections. Try booting off old hdd again and get a usb caddy locally to test new drive for errors as it looks like it may be a bad drive. Also check psu 5v and 12v rails (yellow and a black wire for 12v reading, red and a black wire for 5v rail) and check they are within tolerance of 0.5v either side of rated voltage.
 
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jsholydiver

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So I'm typing this on a freshly cloned HDD. I had to buy a new "New Hard Drive" because the first new one I bought was DOA. I bought a new docking station as well (The clone feature wouldn't work so I went with a software clone). Because my drive was failing I Macruim Reflect failed to clone my HDD at 91%. I tired AOEMI Backupper and while it took 3 hours to clone a 500GB HDD it succeeded. My new HDD (only installed for an hour thus far) is running MUCH faster and I have not noticed any issues *YET*. I ran SFC scan as recommended and it came with a clean bill of health. I defragged all my drives and cleaned those up (System reserve shows 24% of the disk is fragmented and when I run the defragment it doesn't fix it) No idea how much of an issue that will be for me in the future. Thank you ArtPog and daniel_542 very much for your help.You guys took something very frustrating and made it a little less frustrating for me LOL. You guys are the real MVPs.
 
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