Toshiba Satellite powers off instantly without warning, I'm paralyzed so that's bad because I cannot push the button myself.

[canexicans]

It usually happens after starting a 2nd or 3rd application. The surest bets to cause it involve videos or Java, maybe Flash but not confined to. It doesn't "Shutdown" or go through any process. It's just instant off which means no log. (I like Who Crashed Me but it can't help me this time)

As you can imagine, when no one is around, the chance of me pressing the tiny power button is zero. There was an earlier period of time when something similar kept occurring. It got to a point where I stopped turning this same Toshiba off because it instead would into Sleep mode or perhaps into a Quickstart mode from either of which it would not come out of. At first, I'd let it sit until the battery ran out because once truly Off the power button worked when someone pushed it. I discovered that an alternate workaround was getting someone to hold the button in for 40 - 60 seconds eventually turned the computer off too. Again, once truly Off it then could be turned back On. This seemed to improve on its own but since then I never turn it off.

I don't think the two problems are directly related but I felt it worthwhile to mention. Actually, I think the problem stems from some new bad sectors on the C: drive. I've run several disk scan and disk check programs but none are able to complete, all hang. One utility estimates the remaining life expectancy of the drive as < 1 year.

My system is as listed below:

TOSHIBA Satellite Radius P55W-B

• 
  Windows 10 Home (x64) 10 Home (x64)
  2.40 gigahertz Intel Core i5-4210U
  Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
  UEFI: INSYDE Corp. 1.60 12/23/2014
  External USB D: Seagate BUP Slim BK SCSI Disk Device (1000.20 GB)
  Internal C: TOSHIBA MQ01ABD075 [Hard drive] (750.16 GB)
  8114 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
  Intel(R) HD Graphics Family [Display adapter]
  Generic PnP Monitor (15.7"vis)
  Conexant SmartAudio HD
  ↑ Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260
  

Phwew, that's the background of the situation. Now, what to do about it? My plan is to save an image, a clone, a full backup(?) of C: onto D: (a 1TB Seagate USB External drive) with the intent being to end up with 2 identical drives both bootable and both containing functioning Windows 10 and all my programs installed. I believe this is perfectly legal because it's just my system backup.

Once I'm sure my backup worked I'd format the C: then.....

OK, this is where I start panicking and realizing that I have no clue what I'm doing. And, this is just the planning stage. Imagine what a mess I'll be when my real drive and data is on the line?

Can someone maybe give me instructions on what I really should be doing? Am I close? Would starting with a new, clean Windows install be wiser than formatting C: or do both? Am I simply copying bad sectors back and forth? I have programs, Zip files and media files scattered all over C: and several programs would be hard if not impossible to find online and reinstall. I don't know what to do and am going in circles.

Please Help. One word of warning, if I may. I type very slowly so my replies might be a bit slow. For example, this took 2 days to type.

 

[USAFRet]

1. A clone or Image on an external is generally not bootable. Nor do you really want 2 x actual identical bootable things in the same PC.
Later, we can go into better options.

2. If your current install is not working correctly, a clone or image will be equally messed up.

3. You need to discover why the Toshiba does what it is doing.
Is it the OS? Is it the laptop hardware? A failing battery, maybe?

 

[canexicans]

Rats, I had to retype this. I've done many things like booting with no external devices, Updated drivers, Gone back to a Restore Point (although that was the computer's doing when it couldn't recover one time after one of its unplanned shutdowns.) That's when I thought I needed to try something like a clean Windows but thought, "I can't do that knowing there are unmarked bad clusters on C:" I also figured that since I can't get anything to complete a drive scan thus marking them as "bad" I'll need to format C: first and to do that I need to backup C: to my blank external USB drive. I get totally lost now. My internal drive has a Recovery partition (normal enough) and it also has other little partitions which, I guess I can ignore. I'd only reformat the C: partition. I tried easeUS' System Clone but got an FBR GPT error. That's as far as I've got. Now I'm not sure what I'm doing but it feels like I'm making things more difficult than it really is. Am I right with this approach? I may just be copying the problem to the backup.

 

[USAFRet]

This sounds like a dying drive.
Not much you can do but replace it.