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When it comes to hard drive to SSD cloning failure, you may encounter two situations. One is that the hard drive itself is faulty or damaged, and the other is receiving error messages during the cloning process. In this article, we will walk you through both scenarios and show you how to solve the problems.

Solving issues with failed hard drive to SSD cloning

What is a failed hard drive, and why do you need to clone it?

Hard drive failure refers to a situation where your HDD malfunctions, making it impossible to access stored information, even when the rest of the computer configuration is working normally. Hard drive failures can be caused by various factors. These include human error, hardware malfunction, firmware corruption, media damage, heat, water damage, power issues, and accidents.

Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) tend to become prone to damage over extended periods of use, primarily due to their physical structure. An HDD consists of platters, heads, a spindle, and an actuator. The platter surface is composed of multiple concentric circles called tracks, and each track is further divided into smaller segments referred to as disk blocks. When the HDD operates, the platters spin, and the electromagnetic read/write heads record data on the tracks. This operation leads to gradual wear and tear on both the heads and the platters over time.

When your hard drive fails, you will have trouble accessing the information stored on it. What's worse, you may not even be able to boot up your computer. To preserve the data and system files on the failing HDD, the best option you can choose is to clone the failed hard drive.

Encountering an error message when cloning your hard drive to an SSD? What could be happening?

This part is about another case. When you clone a hard drive to an SSD with software like Macrium Reflect and Acronis, you may suddenly receive an error message that says "Clone failed (Macrium Reflect)" or "Disk clone failed", and then the cloning process stops. The reason for the paused cloning process usually has something to do with the status of your HDD or SSD. For instance, if your HDD has bad sectors or file system errors, it might not be able to finish the cloning process. Another situation is the partition size. If you clone from a larger HDD to a smaller SSD, you need to resize the cloned partition, and an error message will pop up if the disk cloning software fails to perform the resizing operation.

Also Read: Cloned Hard Drive Won't Boot

#1. Troubleshooting: Cloning a Failed Hard Drive

The key to cloning a failing hard drive to prevent data loss is that you cannot use regular cloning methods; instead, you must perform a sector-by-sector clone. This is because most failing hard drives are not entirely broken but have a few bad sectors. The aim of sector-by-sector cloning is to replicate as much data from each sector as possible, minimizing the risk of losing all data on a partition or disk.

One cloning software you can use is the Todo Backup tool, a reliable all-in-one cloning and backup solution. More importantly, Todo Backup features sector-by-sector cloning, allowing you to clone a failed hard drive. Here's how to clone a failed hard drive using Todo Backup:

Step 1: Launch the Todo Backup program, click on “Tools”, and then you can choose any function as displayed. Choose Clone or System Clone as needed.

System Clone Step 1

Step 2: Select the source disk or partition and the target disk (make sure the target disk is larger than the source disk or partition).

System Clone Step 2

Clicking Next will show you the warning below. Make sure you understand the risks of cloning your disk, then click Continue.

System Clone Step 3

Step 3. Check the Clone sector by sector option under Advanced Options. The program will then clone at the sector level. Selecting this option ensures that the target disk will have an identical layout as the source disk.

Optimized for SSD

Step 4: Click "Continue" to start the clone.

Clone System Step 4

#2. Troubleshooting: Macrium Reflect/Acronis True Image Clone Failure

As mentioned above, there can be various reasons why cloning software fails to complete the cloning process – the logical sector size of the source disk and the target disk might differ, the HDD itself can be damaged, or the software is unable to perform certain operations. Below, you can find the solutions that can be applied.

1. Check the logical sector size of the hard drive

According to Acronis support documentation, you cannot clone to a disk with a different logical sector size. For instance, you can clone a 512 bytes/sector disk to another 512 bytes/sector disk; you can clone a 4096 bytes/sector disk to another 4096 bytes/sector disk, but you cannot clone a disk with a logical sector size of 512 bytes to one with a logical sector size of 4096 bytes. To check your hard drive's sector size, follow these steps:

Step 1. Press Win + R to open the "Run" box, type in msinfo32, and press Enter to open the "System Information" window.

Step 2. Go to Components > Storage > Disks and check the disk that you want.

Step 3: “Bytes/Sector” will show you the logical sector size of your disk, as shown in the screenshot below, where my disk's sector size is 512 bytes.

Check the logical sector size of the disk

2. Use the CHKDSK command to fix the hard drive

Windows comes with a built-in tool that can help users quickly repair hard drives. Since your computer is still able to start up, the damage might not be severe. You can try using the `chkdsk` command to fix the disk. Here's how: 1. First, press `Win + X` and then select `Command Prompt (Admin)` or `PowerShell (Admin)` depending on your Windows version. 2. In the Command Prompt window, type the following command and hit Enter: ``` chkdsk /f /r C: ``` Here, `C:` is the problematic hard drive partition. If the issue is with another partition like `D:` or `E:`, change the letter accordingly. 3. The system will ask if you want to check the volume the next time you restart. Type `Y` and press Enter, then restart your computer. 4. When the computer starts up, the chkdsk tool will run automatically and scan for hard drive errors. This process may take some time, so please be patient. 5. After it's finished, a report will be displayed, informing you about the status of the hard drive and whether any issues were fixed. Please note that the `/f` parameter is used to fix disk errors, while the `/r` parameter looks for and recovers readable data. If the hard drive has significant physical damage, `chkdsk` might not be able to resolve the problem, and in such cases, you might need to seek professional data recovery services.

Step 1: Press Win + R to open the "Run" box, type "cmd", and then press Enter to open the Command Prompt.

Step 2: Open Command Prompt as an administrator and type the command line: chkdsk c /f /r. You can replace C with the drive letter of any other partition.

Step 3: Press “Enter,” and Windows will begin checking and repairing your disk.

Run the chkdsk command to fix hard drive errors

When it's done, try remaking your disc.

3. Try another cloning app

If you're sure that the hard drive is not the problem, but you still get the clone failed error message, you should consider switching to another tool. As mentioned above, you can also use Todo Backup as an alternative.

Here's why you might choose a disk cloning app as an alternative when others, like Acronis and Macrium Reflect, with their awkward interfaces and lack of support, won't do.

    • A brand with a 10-year track record and a dominant market presence
    • Specially designed for hard drive cloning, capable of sector-level cloning even on failed disks
    • Offers 24x7 online support and remote assistance from experienced IT professionals
    • Less likelihood of user error due to its intuitive, wizard-guided interface
    • Rated as one of the top hard drive cloning software by industry experts
Top 5 Disk Cloning Software Top 5 Disk Cloning Software
 

Ultimately

Cloning a failed hard drive to another functional disk can help you transfer data from the faulty drive to a secure location. Make sure to choose software that offers sector-by-sector cloning. Todo Backup is a recommended option, but you can also explore alternatives.

Disk cloning failure might be due to incompatible logical sector sizes, bad sectors on the hard drive, or a crash in the cloning software. Check and fix your hard drive as suggested in this article. If that doesn't work, consider alternative options.

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