[SOLVED] Attempting to clone HDD to SSD, HDD failing SMART

[Barbatum083]

Greetings,
I am trying to clone my father's Windows 10 HDD to an SSD but the Crucial cloning software failed during the process. I've tried to do some of my own diagnostics and research to fix the problem, but I've hit a wall rather quickly. The HDD is a Seagate drive and I used the Seatools software to test the drive, when it failed the SMART test. The test only lasted a few seconds and then I received a Windows notification, "AMD RAIDXpert Task ec timeout on disk (Port Number 1, Target ID 1) at LBA 0x0e0000000 (Length 0x1)". I'm in uncharted waters now, but I can try to provide any additional information required if need be. Thank you.

 

[DSzymborski]

If the hard drive is failing, then a cloning operation is not what you want to be trying to do.

 

[Barbatum083]

So, that's a sign of the HDD failing? I worried that may be the case, but I'm unsure what else to do. My dad has mentioned just buying a copy of Windows 10 and installing it on the SSD, but I'd like to save him money if I can.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

You can’t install windows fresh on the SSD

 

[Barbatum083]

You can’t install windows fresh on the SSD

I see, I wasn't aware of that then. When I built my current PC, I installed everything fresh on the SSD I put in it.
I'm becoming more and more confused now.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

No dude. I mean you can’t clone a bad hdd. Just install win 10 fresh. Sorry for the confusion

 

[Solandri]

The test only lasted a few seconds and then I received a Windows notification, "AMD RAIDXpert Task ec timeout on disk (Port Number 1, Target ID 1) at LBA 0x0e0000000 (Length 0x1)".

That error message sounds like the system has the HDD in RAID mode. If it does, the RAID controller will be hiding the actual HDD from the system. All Windows (and the SMART tools) will see is a virtual drive created by the RAID chipset to hide the actual drive. You cannot get SMART data from disks in RAID arrays.

It's extremely unusual to run a single-disk RAID. But it can be done by accident, and I know of at least one system vendor who used it as standard for nearly a decade. A more common reason is that the system was originally set up with a 2-drive RAID 1 array, one drive died and was removed, but was never replaced. If the drive is in fact set up as RAID, that could also explain the Crucial cloning process failing. The system needs to load the RAID drivers to access disks in the RAID array. If you boot off a cloning boot CD or USB, it won't have those drivers and will be unable to access the RAID array.

First, make sure you have a backup of all the data on the drive. What I'm about to suggest is pretty low-risk, but it's always better to be safe. Go into the BIOS and see if the SATA ports are in IDE, AHCI, or RAID mode. They should be in AHCI mode for a single-drive system. If it's set to RAID, try switching it to AHCI and rebooting. See if (1) the system still boots, and (2) if the SMART tools and disk cloning software can access the disk now.

If the system becomes unbootable, switch it back to RAID mode. When booting you should see some text flash by saying something like "Press ctrl-I to enter RAID configuration." Go ahead and do that. Don't change anything in there, but see if a RAID array has been configured with the one physical drive in it. If this is the case, then cloning your drive is going to be tricky. I can think of a way to do it, but it's pretty involved. So I won't bother writing it up unless you can confirm that this is in fact the problem.

 

[Barbatum083]

Okay, sounds good to me. I will check this today when I get a chance. I do know my dad had the original HDD replaced a while ago because it apparently failed. I don't know enough details about the first time he had it worked on though. I will go check for this today, thanks Solandri and Mandark!

 

[fzabkar]

Smartmontools (a Linux tool) can sometimes see the individual drives behind a RAID controller. That said, I was not aware that SeaTools could do the same, so how did it determine that there was a SMART failure?

As for cloning a failing HDD, that's the recommended course of action, if a data recovery shop is not an option. Tools such as ddrescue and HDDSuperClone are able to work with drives which have bad heads or media, but there are risks. Other tools will attempt to read a bad sector many times whereas ddrescue and HDDSuperClone will skip over these bad areas. These tools maintain a log so they can resume after an interruption.

 

[Barbatum083]

That error message sounds like the system has the HDD in RAID mode. If it does, the RAID controller will be hiding the actual HDD from the system. All Windows (and the SMART tools) will see is a virtual drive created by the RAID chipset to hide the actual drive. You cannot get SMART data from disks in RAID arrays.

It's extremely unusual to run a single-disk RAID. But it can be done by accident, and I know of at least one system vendor who used it as standard for nearly a decade. A more common reason is that the system was originally set up with a 2-drive RAID 1 array, one drive died and was removed, but was never replaced. If the drive is in fact set up as RAID, that could also explain the Crucial cloning process failing. The system needs to load the RAID drivers to access disks in the RAID array. If you boot off a cloning boot CD or USB, it won't have those drivers and will be unable to access the RAID array.

First, make sure you have a backup of all the data on the drive. What I'm about to suggest is pretty low-risk, but it's always better to be safe. Go into the BIOS and see if the SATA ports are in IDE, AHCI, or RAID mode. They should be in AHCI mode for a single-drive system. If it's set to RAID, try switching it to AHCI and rebooting. See if (1) the system still boots, and (2) if the SMART tools and disk cloning software can access the disk now.

If the system becomes unbootable, switch it back to RAID mode. When booting you should see some text flash by saying something like "Press ctrl-I to enter RAID configuration." Go ahead and do that. Don't change anything in there, but see if a RAID array has been configured with the one physical drive in it. If this is the case, then cloning your drive is going to be tricky. I can think of a way to do it, but it's pretty involved. So I won't bother writing it up unless you can confirm that this is in fact the problem.

Well it was set up as RAID and unfortunately wouldn’t boot into windows. It would get to the logo and tell me about an inaccessible boot drive. It’s done that twice now and windows is trying to repair it, but I’m unsure if that will bare any fruit.

 

[Solandri]

Did you switch it back to RAID mode? That should at least let you boot again.

 

[Barbatum083]

Did you switch it back to RAID mode? That should at least let you boot again.

When I switched it back to RAID mode it got stuck "Attempting to Repair"

 

[Solandri]

Ok, the motherboard RAID controllers I've used would remember the RAID configuration even if you switched it off and back on. Apparently yours does not. I hope you made that backup.

If you didn't make the backup, then during boot, when it says "hit ctrl-I to enter RAID configuration" or something similar, do what it says. Once you're in the RAID setup and configuration menu, attempt to create a RAID array with the single drive. Assuming your controller lets you do that, that should let it boot off the disk again. Once you're in, make the backup.

If you made the backup, then switch it back to AHCI mode. On another computer, create a bootable Windows 10 install USB. Boot off of that and attempt to run a repair on the drive. Try the automatic method first. If that doesn't work, try it manually. Most of the motherboard RAID 1 systems I've used don't actually set up the drive and partitions any differently from non-RAID. Just the boot process is different. Hopefully the repair gets it to use the right boot process for an AHCI drive.

https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager-software/fix-uefi-boot-in-windows-10-8-7.html

SOLUTION: Switch Windows 10 from RAID/IDE to AHCI operation | Triple-S Computers Blog – Louisville, KY computer repair specialist

 

[Barbatum083]

I think I've given up on the HDD, but I appreciate the advice all the same. Could I just install the SSD and install Windows 10 on it? I've backed up the relevant stuff my dad wanted to keep, so that's taken care of.

 

[Solandri]

Yes, on another computer, create a Win 10 install USB (this will erase everything on the flash drive).

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2376-create-bootable-usb-flash-drive-install-windows-10-a.html

Make sure the SATA ports are in AHCI mode in the BIOS. Install the SSD, disconnect all other drives. Boot off the install USB, and install Windows onto the SSD. After it's finished installing, you can reconnect any other drives.

 

[Barbatum083]

I'm having all sorts of trouble with this lol, both of my flash drives are not functioning now. The one I've had for about a week and now I can't use. I was 50% of the way through getting it ready for installing Windows 10 on that new SSD and windows explorer quit responding. Now the flash drive isn't readable and wants me to format it, except I can't format it. I read a thread on here about fixing the issue with cmd and running chkdsk but that failed. I tried to format it with diskpart/change it to ntfs and that didn't work either. So now I'm pretty much lost on what else to do, besides buy another flash drive.