Question What can I do with a failing HDD AFTER backing up files and getting a new HDD?

[WhatIsAMobo]

When it finishes (may take long time), HDD Regenerator will give you list of addresses with bad sectors, you take, write down lowest an highest. In a partition manager make a partition to lowest address. skip rest until highest address and start another partition from there to end of disk. I cant say its practical now nut that's what we used to do when disks were very expensive.

Memory addresses? Like, hexadecimal gibberish? I see. Now I sort of understand.
Thanks for the guidance. I will evaluate that after I finish my drive backup.

 

[WhatIsAMobo]

Macrium saves it as one large file.
Everything needed to recover that to a whole new drive.

Each Incremental is only the differences since last time an Incremental was created. Much smaller file.

ex:
A Full Image of my current C drive is 189GB
Last nights Incremental is 7GB
The night before, 6.5GB
and so on...

Older ones autodelete as time goes on.

I was reading MAcrium docs on that. So there is a 00-00 backup file, which apparently contains the Full Disk Image. And the the following files (smaller as you said) with incremental numbers (01-01 / 02-02/ etc) will be the new stuff thats been added to the whole backup folder/system ever since you did the first Full Disk Image. Correct?
It seems like Macrium has a way to schedule these things though I m yet to figure out how, is that correct too?

 

[USAFRet]

I was reading MAcrium docs on that. So there is a 00-00 backup file, which apparently contains the Full Disk Image. And the the following files (smaller as you said) with incremental numbers (01-01 / 02-02/ etc) will be the new stuff thats been added to the whole backup folder/system ever since you did the first Full Disk Image. Correct?
It seems like Macrium has a way to schedule these things though I m yet to figure out how, is that correct too?

This is my C drive, from last night and a few days previous.

Each of the 6 drives in its own time slot.

 

[USAFRet]

And yes, I have had to use this following a suddenly dead SSD.
Completely dead, no possibility of recover.

Click click in Macrium, select last nights Incremental....all 605GB recovered to a new drive, exactly as it was at 4AM that morning.

 

[WhatIsAMobo]

This is my C drive, from last night and a few days previous.

Each of the 6 drives in its own time slot.

WOW, you got 237 Incremental backups? Damn.

Curiosity. Unless I really want the new stuff added to an X drive, after a backup being done, can I just keep around one Full Disk Image (00-00 one) and a few incrementals? As long as it goes back to how it was, I m perfectly fine.

 

[USAFRet]

WOW, you got 237 Incremental backups? Damn.

Curiosity. Unless I really want the new stuff added to an X drive, after a backup being done, can I just keep around one Full Disk Image (00-00 one) and a few incrementals? As long as it goes back to how it was, I m perfectly fine.

No, only 30. It keeps for a rolling 30 days, deleting the oldest as it goes.
That "237" is the numerical since this routine started on Dec 28, 2022.
So ~237 days ago, minus vacation times...😉

 

[USAFRet]

Curiosity. Unless I really want the new stuff added to an X drive, after a backup being done, can I just keep around one Full Disk Image (00-00 one) and a few incrementals? As long as it goes back to how it was, I m perfectly fine.

Yes.
All depends on your willingness to lose.

 

[Misgar]

Someone gave me an old WD800AFDF 80GB 10,000RPM 3.5in Raptor drive for investigation.

It was past recovery so I took the lid off and use it to explain how hard disks work to non-technical friends.

The Raptor weighs 1.5lb (700g). Much heavier than a typical 5400RPM drive at just over 1lb (500g).

When hard disks start going bad, I replace them. It's not worth the aggro if/when they eventually die.

 

[USAFRet]

When hard disks start going bad, I replace them. It's not worth the aggro if/when they eventually die.

Exactly.