Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Help with cloning failing ssd drive C

Jun 6, 2019 4:20PM PDT

Hi everybody , 
My 1 1/2 years old Dell 5675 is showing me "drive errors" on C 250GB ssd ,and the repair drive error system says it cannot repair after trying a few times , the computer still works , with occasional warnings , Firefox doesn't work anymore . I have an empty pci,e slot for an NVMe M2 ssd ,so I read that I can clone the C drive with free macrium trial version onto a newer drive , my question is ,how urgent should I do it ? Is my Dell just about to die ?
Can I order the new drive and wait or I have to rush to a shop ?
I already have inside a slow 3TB hd half full ,can I clone onto the 3TB hd without affecting the files already there?
After the cloning do I have to go into the Bios or Uefi to switch the boot drive?
Some article suggested that just taking out the old drive does the trick and the Mobo will boot with the new drive.
Please help , I accept any suggestion.
Thanks in advance

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Your choice on what to do.
Jun 6, 2019 4:24PM PDT

Here since Windows 10 I only have to backup MY STUFF. The OS is already activated for my PC so if a clone fails due to failing drives I can just clean install W10, do the driver and app work and restore my stuff from backups.

If you never backup then you decided long ago nothing is worth backed up.

This is why I'm going with, no problem. Replace the drive and start fresh.

- Collapse -
Answer
PS. About the clone to the 3TB drive.
Jun 6, 2019 4:27PM PDT

If you clone a drive the destination only has what the source has. I've seen folk try this and wipe out files that they had no backups for.

On top of that, data recovery houses could not recover the files because they were overwritten versus deleted.

If you get the feeling that backups and using another drive for the clone work is how to proceed then the message is sinking in.

NEVER CLONE WHEN YOU HAVE NO BACKUPS OF DRIVES THAT ARE IN THE PC.

That 3TB drive would be at risk if it's connected during any CLONE JOB.

- Collapse -
Thanks Proffitt
Jun 6, 2019 7:18PM PDT

So if I proceed to clone I will take out the 2 extra hard drives that are in my PC first.
I didn't suspect this problem at all.
And I'll clone only on a brand new ssd that I'll install on the same mobo.
But should I hurry to do the cloning or these "errors" are not imminent danger ?

- Collapse -
You only hurry to save what
Jun 6, 2019 8:23PM PDT

You only hurry to save what is not on backups. I run into a lot of old and new users that go without backups.

- Collapse -
Answer
Clone
Jun 6, 2019 7:31PM PDT

If your sure you have an empty pcie m2 slot then get a proper ssd and fit it in the slot and clone.

After the clone remove the old ssd and see if it will boot.

NO......do not clone to the 3TB hdd.

- Collapse -
repairing all 3 disk several times with the error checking
Jun 21, 2019 8:06PM PDT

I finally resolved it by repairing all 3 disk several times with the error checking tool , so here are the Hard disk sentinel results.

I fell for all those warnings but the drives were not failing , So thank you all.

oops ,how can I insert images ?

- Collapse -
Wait, what?
Jun 21, 2019 9:05PM PDT
https://www.google.com/search?q=Hard+disk+sentinel&gl=US finds a tool I might or might not use. For me I head straight to the SMART VALUES and backup copies first.

As to Sentinel, I would not have guessed that's why you posted here. It's not something others are asking about here. You're the first.