How to Clone a Hard Drive with Bad Sectors (HDD/SSD)

Before diving into the detailed information, let's first look at how to prepare for cloning a hard drive with bad sectors.

[[1](#1)] Which software is best for cloning a hard drive with bad sectors?

"I have a Seagate 2TB hard drive with 34% bad sectors. I'm planning to clone it to a 2TB WD Black HDD. Yesterday, I tried some cloning software but encountered the same 'Copy Failed' error, and then the cloning process stopped. Now, I really need to find an effective disk cloning software that can handle a hard drive with bad sectors. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated."

Normally, you would use a disk cloning software when you need to upgrade to a larger hard drive, or when replacing an old disk with a new one. Cloning your operating system, installed programs, files, emails, photos, and other data saves you a lot of time and effort that would otherwise be spent on reinstalling everything.

However, when bad sectors are detected on your old hard drive, most cloning processes will stop immediately. This is why it's important to find a reliable disk and partition cloning software that can copy a hard drive with bad sectors.

The Disk Copy tool, known as one of the best disk and partition cloning software in the market, offers unique powerful cloning features that help you replicate the contents of a disk and migrate your data, system, or apps to another drive, such as transferring Windows 10 from HDD to SSD without losing data.

When the software detects bad sectors on the source disk, it will not terminate the cloning process but will handle the bad sectors non-stop.

Video Tutorial: How to Clone a Hard Drive (Using an HDD to SSD Clone as an Example)

A detailed video may do a better job than any text I could write here, so watch this video to see how to use a disk-cloning tool to upgrade your hard drive.

How to Clone a Hard Drive to an SSD

 

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How to Use a Disk Cloning Tool to Clone a Hard Drive with Bad Sectors

The tool Disk Copy provides an all-around solution to clone hard drive for different situations. When there are a few bad sectors and your computer can access the disk, you can run CHKDSK /F command line to fix the bad sector drive, then clone the damaged hard drive in Windows 10.

Using a disk cloning tool allows you to replace your laptop's hard drive without losing data, as well as migrate your operating system from HDD to SSD or from SSD to SSD without re-installing Windows. Additionally, it can adjust partition sizes during the cloning process and help you clone a hard drive before replacing it.

If there are too many bad sectors on the hard drive, the operating system and disk controller can no longer access these areas and read or write operations will fail. In this case, you need to use a bootable disk to enter WinPE and clone the damaged hard drive.

Now, let's see how to clone a hard drive with bad sectors using a disk cloning tool in a few simple steps. Before you start, you can run a hard drive surface test to determine the number of bad sectors.

Get the best disk cloning software to clone HDD with bad sectors.

AOMEI Backupper is a tool fully compatible with Windows 11/10/8/7. You can use this software to easily upgrade and clone all data from a hard drive with bad sectors to a new disk.

How to Clone a Bad Hard Drive in Windows 10

Make sure you connect both the new and the bad hard drive to your computer as storage devices before you begin the cloning process.

Step 1: Download, install, and run a disk cloning tool on your computer.

Click “Disk Mode,” then select the hard drive you want to copy or clone. If your hard drive has bad sectors, check the “Clone bad sectors” option as well. Click “Next” to continue.

Step 2: Select the target disk.

Note: If you are copying or cloning a source disk, the target disk should be the same size or larger.

Step 3: Check and edit the disk layout.

If your target disk is an SSD, make sure to check the Optimize for SSD option.

If prompted to erase the contents of the target disk, click OK.

Click “Continue” to start the hard drive cloning process.

After that, you can reconfigure the computer to boot from the system disk and use the data from the HDD/SSD clone on the new disk without issues, despite the bad sectors.

How to use a bootable disk clone to clone a hard drive with bad sectors

Step 1: On a healthy Windows computer, download, install, and run a disk cloning tool. Connect an external storage device, such as a USB flash drive or an external hard drive, to the computer. Click “Create Bootable Disk.”

Step 2. Choose the USB option and select your device, then click “Create.”

When it's done, you'll have a bootable disk.

Step 3: Connect the bootable disk USB and your new SSD/HDD to the computer whose disk you want to clone, and set the machine to boot from the bootable disk by changing the boot order in BIOS.

Step 4: In the Disk Clone tool, click the “Disk Mode,” then select the source disk that you want to copy or clone. Click “Next” to proceed.

Step 5: Choose the target disk to which you wish to clone/copy your old disk, then click “Next” to proceed. If prompted, confirm that you want to erase the data on the target disk.

Step 6: Review and edit the disk layout, selecting either “Auto adjust to disk,” “Match source,” or “Edit disk layout.” Choose “Auto adjust to disk” for best results.

• The "Copy source" option will copy the partition layout of the source disk to the target disk.
• "Edit disk layout" allows you to manually adjust or move the partition layout on the target disk.
• If your target disk is an SSD, make sure to check the box "Select this option if the target is an SSD."

Click “Continue” to start cloning or copying the disk.

In short

That's all about how to clone a hard drive with bad sectors in detail. In short, you should use a professional disk cloning tool to help you clone a hard drive with bad sectors. In this regard, the AOMEI Backupper Standard tool can meet your needs. It has advanced sector-by-sector cloning technology that can help you clone a hard drive with bad sectors. It can also help you solve the problem of cloned hard drive showing wrong size. Just download it to your laptop and explore its functions.

Frequently Asked Questions About Cloning a Disk with Bad Sectors

1. Can I clone a hard drive with bad sectors?

Bad sectors can affect the reading and writing of data on a hard drive. When there are too many bad sectors, it might be time to replace the faulty drive. Before doing so, it's essential to protect your existing data by cloning the disk correctly. Tools like Disk Copy can safely clone disk sectors, skipping over bad areas and copying the data from the damaged disk to a new one.

2. Can I clone a damaged hard drive?

Indeed, tools like Disk Copy make it easy to clone a disk with bad sectors.

Step 1. In Disk Mode, select the damaged HDD that you want to clone.

Step 2: Choose the target disk as the destination.

Step 3: After modifying the disk layout, click Proceed.

3. Can you clone a bad hard drive?

If the hard drive is too damaged for the computer to read, you won't be able to clone it. However, if the computer can still access the data on the drive, you may be able to clone it even if the drive is damaged.