How to Clone Failed Hard Drive to External Hard Drive in Windows 10/8/7

Written by Tracy King on Sep 14, 2021 for Disk/Partition Clone | How-to Guides

As we know, hard drives are usually used to store and save data on laptops and desktops. Also, in most cases, the Windows system needs to be installed on the disk to boot Windows. If you encounter a problem of "cloning a failed hard drive in Windows 10", read on to find the solutions.

Why clone a failed hard drive?

After a long period of use – say, three to four years – a disk can accumulate corrupted system files, bad sectors, and useless junk. At that point, all sorts of problems can arise, with “hard-disk failure” among the most common.

A failing hard drive is usually very unstable, meaning that it can't save or transfer data to your Windows PC consistently. Sometimes, it might even repeatedly start and stop. Worse still, it could freeze or fail to boot altogether. If the faulty hard drive is your system disk for Windows, you may not be able to boot your computer at all.

Thus, to prevent severe data loss or even boot issues, it's highly recommended to clone the failed hard drive when your computer is having hard drive failure.

What do you need to clone a failed hard drive to an external hard drive? To clone a failed hard drive to an external hard drive, you will typically require the following items: 1. **Failed Hard Drive**: This is the disk with the issue that needs its data copied. 2. **External Hard Drive**: A large enough external hard drive to accommodate all the data from the failed drive. Ensure it has a compatible interface with the failed drive (such as SATA, USB, Thunderbolt, etc.). 3. **Hard Drive Adapter/Dock**: If your failed drive is an internal one, you might need an adapter or dock to convert it into an external device for connecting to a computer. 4. **Cables**: Depending on the drive interfaces, you may require USB, SATA, or other types of connection cables to link both hard drives. 5. **Computer**: A computer to run the cloning software. It can be a desktop or laptop, as long as it has the necessary ports to connect both hard drives. 6. **Cloning Software**: There are various free and paid cloning tools available, such as Clonezilla, Acronis True Image, or tools Todo Backup. Some operating systems (like Windows) also have built-in cloning features. 7. **Anti-Static Bags**: Using anti-static bags while handling hard drives can protect them from static electricity damage. Before starting the cloning process, ensure you back up any critical data and follow safety precautions to avoid data loss or further damage to the hard drive.

Now you may wonder how to clone a failed hard drive to a new one or an external hard drive, and what preparations you need to make, right?

Here are some preparations you might want to make before beginning to clone a failing hard drive:

• An empty external hard drive/HDD (with a larger capacity than the failed one).
• A powerful disk cloning software to copy and clone the data from the failed hard drive to the external HDD.
• Works on all Windows OS – Windows 10/8.1/7/XP/Vista, etc.

To protect the data on the failed hard drive, we highly recommend that you seek help from reliable and 100% secure disk cloning software. Here, we suggest you give the Disk Copy tool a try, which allows you to skip all existing bad sectors and clone the entire hard drive or specific partitions to a new disk.

How to Clone a Failed Hard Drive to an External Hard Drive in Windows 10/8/7

A detailed guide has been prepared for you.

Note: If the failed drive is not the system disk, you can install the cloning software on the computer.
If the failed drive is the system disk and you can no longer start Windows from it, you need to install the Disk Copy tool on another healthy computer that is running the same version of Windows as the failed drive, and then create a bootable disk.

You can click the button below to clone the entire failed hard drive and all its data to an external drive or a new disk in just a few simple steps:

Please connect any external devices to your computer in advance.

Step 1: Select "Disk Mode", check the source disk, and then click "Next".

Step 2: Select the external hard drive as the target disk.

Step 3: A warning message will pop up, informing you that all data on the target disk will be erased. If there is no important data on it, click “OK” to proceed.

Step 4: Change the disk layout if needed, and click “Continue” to proceed.

Step 5: Wait for the process to complete.

You have now successfully cloned and moved all saved data from the failing hard drive to the new external one. You can now view and use the cloned data on the new disk.

How to Fix a Failing Hard Drive in Windows 10/8/7

First, make sure the hard drive is actually damaged or failing. Check the data cable and power supply. Then, connect the hard drive to another computer to see if it's detected. After that, run the CHKDSK utility to fix the hard drive.

In the Search Windows box next to the Start menu, type cmd.

Step 2. In the search results, right-click on "Command Prompt" and select "Run as administrator."

Step 3. Type the command chkdsk E: /f /r /x. Replace E with the letter of your drive.

If running CHKDSK sounds like too much work, never fear: you can run the CleanGenius utility instead.

If you're not comfortable with the command line, you can try the free CleanGenius utility as an alternative. This one-click tool will help you fix file system errors on your hard drive.

Step 1: Download CleanGenius for free on your computer.

Step 2: Run the software. Click “Optimize” on the left, and then choose “File Display.”

Select the file with the display option

Step 3. Go to the “Select Drive” tab and choose the drive with the file system error. Check the box next to “Check and fix file system errors,” then click “Execute.”

Step 4. Wait for CleanGenius to finish the repair process. When it's done, click “Here” to view the results.

Conclusion

Hard drive failure is a common issue that most users encounter. You can clone a failing hard drive in Windows 10 to safeguard your data. After the cloning process, connect the external hard drive to your computer. The tool Disk Copy plays a significant role in backing up a failing hard drive. You can try using this software anytime to protect your data.