[SOLVED] Clone HDD or Replace HDD, what do I need to or know, if I do one or the other?

[DasUsagi]

Hi so as you can see in the title, I'm considering on either cloning my old HDD or replacing it with a new one, the reason for this is because it is now showing "reallocated sectors", from what I've read "reallocated sectors" are bad but it is OK as long as it doesn't increase, well in my case it is increasing, and from what I understand now would be a good time to backup Important files(which I've already done) and or get a new HDD.

Which leads me to my question what do I need to do if I clone or replace my hdd?

All I know is if I'm cloning, I would need an enclosure, a new hdd, and a cloning software. For the replace HDD method, I would need a USB containing the OS (and I think also the drives for my specific laptop which can be found in the manufacturers website). So this is the basic of what I know right now however I do not know what else I might need , I haven't done this before so I don't know what to expect. So if you can give me some advice or if this thread is similar to others maybe leave a link. Any help would be appreciated and thank you for reading.

 

[d239919]

I have recently upgraded my laptop's storage drive to an SSD. I decided to go with a clean installation of Windows, so I might not answer your question completely, but I still have a couple of things to say. First of all, I would advise replacing your HDD with a 2.5 inch SATA SSD. The reason why I upgraded was that my system was not as responsive as it used to be. This upgrade has solved my issues and this is what I would advise to anyone who is still running their system on HDD.

You could also decide to install a clean copy of Windows as I did and since you backed up all your data, you could then just transfer it to your new system. This could prevent any kinds of errors occurring after cloning your drive, but maybe I am just a little bit too skeptical. Windows activates automatically because the product key is usually linked to the MAC address of your motherboard or your Microsoft account and any drivers you might require should also automatically install. When it comes to cloning, there are a couple of SSDs which come with their own software and it should be as simple as plugging in both drives and running the software. After everything is done, you should be able to unplug the old drive and run your system from the new one as you used to. I do not think there is much more to say.

 

[jojesa]

Hi so as you can see in the title, I'm considering on either cloning my old HDD or replacing it with a new one, the reason for this is because it is now showing "reallocated sectors", from what I've read "reallocated sectors" are bad but it is OK as long as it doesn't increase, well in my case it is increasing, and from what I understand now would be a good time to backup Important files(which I've already done) and or get a new HDD.

Which leads me to my question what do I need to do if I clone or replace my hdd?

All I know is if I'm cloning, I would need an enclosure, a new hdd, and a cloning software. For the replace HDD method, I would need a USB containing the OS (and I think also the drives for my specific laptop which can be found in the manufacturers website). So this is the basic of what I know right now however I do not know what else I might need , I haven't done this before so I don't know what to expect. So if you can give me some advice or if this thread is similar to others maybe leave a link. Any help would be appreciated and thank you for reading.

You have an idea of the problem and the solution.

Also you could create an image (copy) of your current hard drive to an external hard drive.
It is always recommended to keep a back up of at least your files., since any disk could fail unexpectedly.

When you install a new disk you could deploy the image into the ne HDD/SSD thus restoring everything as it was when you created the image.

If you go with a SSD some (Intel, Samsung) come with clonning software.

Windows has backup built in.
Just get into the Control Panel, Backup and Restore (Windows 7), and click on Create a system image.
Save the image to a external or internal disk (make sure to get a disk with enough space).
Windows will ask you to create a recovery drive (on a USB flash drive).
After installing the new disk into your laptop you could boot with the USB recovery drive. You will select language, choose Troubleshoot and select Recover from a drive and deploy the image into the new disk.

 

[USAFRet]

You absolutely need a new drive.

Clone or clean install is the question.
I have a tested series of steps and software to clone with, but in this case, that may not be a good idea.
If the current drive is acting up, cloning may just transfer bad data from the old drive to the new.

What OS is this?
Do you have your personal files backed up?

 

[popatim]

Its not an "OR" . You backup data AND get a replacement drive.

 

[DasUsagi]

I think I will just go with the Replace the HDD method instead of cloning, with respect to what USAFRet said, I'd rather not risk the chance of taking the bad sectors to the new drive, my current OS is win10 and yes I've already save all my personal files and other files that I would need, it would just be a matter of transferring the files to the new drive. Thank you to everyone who answered.