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

Updated by Linda on Sep 14, 2021 in Disk/Partition Clone | User Guide

[[1](#part1)] What is the best software to clone 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 several cloning software but got an '复制失败' error, and the cloning process stopped. Now, I urgently need an effective disk cloning software that can handle a hard drive with bad sectors. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated."

Disk cloning software typically comes in handy when you're upgrading from a smaller hard drive to a larger one, or when migrating from an old disk to a new one. Cloning your operating system, installed programs, files, emails, photos, and other data can save you a great deal of time and effort that would otherwise be spent reinstalling everything. However, when your old hard drive is diagnosed with bad sectors, the cloning process will usually come to a screeching halt. This is why it's crucial to find a robust disk and partition cloning software that can clone a hard drive with bad sectors.

As one of the best disk cloning software and partition cloning software on the market, AOMEI Backupper Standard provides unique powerful cloning functions to help you completely copy the contents of a disk and migrate your data, system, or applications to another hard drive. When it detects bad sectors on the source disk, it will not terminate the process but clone bad sectors non-stop.

Video Tutorial: How to Clone a Hard Drive (Example: Cloning HDD to SSD)

A video tutorial may be more helpful than a written one; you can watch it to see how to upgrade your hard drive using a disk-cloning utility.

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How to Clone a Hard Drive with Bad Sectors Using Disk Copy Tools

Bad sector cloning tools like Disk Copy provide an all-around solution for copying disks with bad sectors under various circumstances. When you have a small number of logical bad sectors and your computer can access the disk, you can run the CHKDSK / F command line to fix drives with bad sectors and then clone a damaged hard drive in Windows 10. However, if there are too many physical bad sectors on the HDD that both the operating system and disk controller can't access, performing any read/write operations is impossible; you must use a bootable disk to clone a damaged hard drive in WinPE.

Now, let's see how to clone a hard drive with bad sectors using a disk cloning tool like Disk Copy. Before you start, it is recommended to perform a disk surface test to determine the number of bad sectors.

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

AOMEI Backupper is an entirely compatible tool with Windows 10/8/7. You can use it to help you upgrade and clone all data from the bad sector hard drive to a new disk easily.

1. How to Clone a Hard Drive with Bad Sectors on Windows 10

Before beginning the cloning process, connect both the new and the bad-sector-ridden old hard drive to your computer as storage devices.

Step 1: Under 'Disk Mode,' select the HDD you want to clone.

Step 2: Choose the SSD as the destination.

A warning will appear, telling you that the data on the SSD will be erased. If you don't have any important data on the target disk, click "OK" to proceed.

Step 3: Edit the disk layout if you wish, and click “Continue” to proceed.

Since the target is an SSD, check the box for “If the target is an SSD, select this option.”

Step 4: Wait for the process to complete.

Then, you can reset the computer to boot from the system disk, and use the data cloned to the new disk (HDD/SSD) without issues, despite the bad sectors on the hard drive.

2. How to Use Disk Clone to Copy a Hard Drive with Bad Sectors

Step 1. Download, install, and run a disk cloning tool on a healthy Windows computer. Connect an external storage device like a USB flash drive or external hard drive to the computer. Click “Create a bootable drive.”

Step 2. Select USB, choose your device, and click "Create."

Wait for the process to complete, and you'll have a bootable disk.

Step 3. Connect the bootable USB drive and the new SSD/HDD to the computer whose disk you want to clone. Set the system to boot from the bootable drive by changing the boot order in the BIOS.

4. In Disk Utility, click on "Disk Copy," then select the source disk that you want to copy or clone. Click "Continue" to proceed.

5. Select the target disk to which you want to clone/copy the old disk, then click "Next" to proceed. If the program prompts you to erase data from the target disk, click "OK".

Step 6: Check and edit the disk layout, selecting to either "Autofit to disk", "Match source", or "Customize". It is recommended to use "Autofit to disk".

• Selecting Copy source will copy/clone the partition layout of the source disk to the target disk. • Editing the disk layout allows you to manually adjust the partition layout of the target disk. • If the target disk is an SSD, remember to check the box for “Optimize for SSD if target is SSD.”

Click Continue to begin the disk clone or disk copy process.

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 your hard drive. If you have too many bad sectors, it might be time to replace the faulty hard drive. Before you do, cloning your hard drive with bad sectors is the best way to preserve your existing data. You can use disk cloning software to safely clone disk sectors, skip over bad ones, and copy the data from your damaged disk to a new drive.

2. Can you clone a damaged hard drive?

Yes, disk duplication tools can easily copy bad sectors along with the good ones.

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

Step 2. Choose the target hard drive as your destination.

Step 3: Edit the disk layout if needed, and click “Continue” to proceed.

How to fix bad sectors using tools?

tools Partition Master provides surface test to check for bad sectors.

Step1: Launch Partition Assistant. Right click the disk which you want to check and then click "Surface Test".

Step 2: The operation is performed immediately. Bad sectors are marked in red.

Bad sectors refer to physically damaged areas on a hard drive that prevent a computer from reading from or writing to that location. If you have too many bad sectors that are found after scanning with a partition management tool, no software can fix it – you'll need to replace the hard drive.

How do I fix bad sectors?

The following steps explain how to repair logical bad sectors.

Step 1: Use the Partition Master tool to scan the hard drive and locate bad sectors. Then, do the following:

Step 2. Perform data recovery for the logical bad sector.

Step 3. Use a tool like Partition Wizard, Disk Management, or File Explorer to format the hard drive.

Step 4. Run SFC to check for bad sectors.