Looking to replace failed harddrive

grayfawx

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Sep 27, 2014
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So basically, my hard drive has failed and it has my OS on it. I'm getting an ssd to replace it, And I figured I could transfer the data and os to the ssd, until I ran into a problem.

I can't transfer the data unless I have my computer turned on and I'm at my desktop (which I can't do) So! Does any brilliant minded person know of a way to save the day?

(I do not have the ssd yet but I will keep all of your replies for future reference)
 
Solution
Hi there grayfawx,

I guess you are talking about the cloning process. Though, if the drive is dead, you will not be able to do that. You will need to do a fresh install as kanewolf already suggested.
Apart from that, your drive is nowhere to be recognized(BIOS, Disk Management) right?

D_Know_WD

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
If your drive has "failed" then it may or may not be readable. If you didn't do an image backup that you can restore to the SSD, then you may have to do a fresh OS install. Your OS media should be bootable. Once you have an OS built, you could try connecting the failed drive to see if it is readable to get your data.
 
Hi there grayfawx,

I guess you are talking about the cloning process. Though, if the drive is dead, you will not be able to do that. You will need to do a fresh install as kanewolf already suggested.
Apart from that, your drive is nowhere to be recognized(BIOS, Disk Management) right?

D_Know_WD
 
Solution

grayfawx

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Sep 27, 2014
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Well actually it's not completely dead, SMART reads it as bad, so needs to be backed up and replaced. It can be read in the bios still if going to boot management counts as reading the hard drive.
 

Sgt_Sykes

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Jul 17, 2013
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Yesterday I migrated from HDD to SSD using EaseUS Partition Manager. It's free, I've been using it for years and it's reliable. Though the HDD>SSD migration tool has a bug as it won't change the new drive letter in Windows so I got a system drive on G: and it kept loading C: stuff from my old drive until I fixed it in regitry.

If you can't use the computer, get the AXAGO ADSA-3S gadget which allows to clone hard drives without a computer.
 

grayfawx

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Sep 27, 2014
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I will try whatever the AXAGO is, I hope it works! what would I use to clone it? Or does the AXAGO come with the whole package?
 

Sgt_Sykes

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Jul 17, 2013
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I've never seen it live so I don't know, but it's a device which you can connect several hard drives to and optionally connect them all to the PC, or clone them without the PC. I assume a power source is needed though it should be the part of the package. I don't know more, check with any local store that may be selling it. There are probably equivalent products as well. This one costs about 25 € where I live.