I have a C and E drive. The C drive clones to the E drive every night.
It is reading 100 healthy and is a mirror image of C. The C is down to 59% health (40 bad sectors). I replaced the cables and the dive seems to be arrested but I want to install a new C drive.
If I have the new drive in hand, I have nothing to lose, so can I regenerate the C drive while it is running and try to repair it or try reformatting it and then clone the E drive back to this new reformatted drive.
What is the best procedure to follow if I just want to replace? Assume I am getting a new drive from Seagate.
Should I remove the C drive with bad sectors and then boot off the E: Drive? Will the E drive become the C: drive automatically?
What then, just start using the former E drive and insert the newly purchased drive and set it up to be cloned?
Appreciate your response.
Best procedure to install new HDD
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Re: Best procedure to install new HDD
> Should I remove the C drive with bad sectors and then boot off the E: Drive? Will the E drive become the C: drive automatically?
If you have 100% sector-to-sector clone, then yes, it will simply act as a new C: drive if you swap them: ideally you can boot from it and use as is.
If this happens, you can use it as C: and then clone to the new drive if you prefer - or you can try to manually clone your current C: to the new drive.
This depends on your preference: do you prefer to use the current backup drive OR a brand new drive as system drive.
Before proceeding, I'd recommend to test the new drive, to confirm that it is perfectly working - or reveal any (even minor) issue before you start using in the system.
Please check: https://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#tests
for more details.
After replaced the drive, and there is nothing to lose, you can perform the above mentioned tests on your original C: drive, if you connect it as a secondary disk drive (for example by USB adapter/dock) exactly to verify the situation: confirm if the drive already found and reallocated all bad sectors (as they no longer cause troubles) or if there is any issue with it which may need to be fixed.
The current reported "bad sectors" already replaced by spare area, they do not cause issues, ideally disk tests will not show any problems. So there is no need to regenerate them in any ways.
The question is always: are there any further sectors which can damage/fail - or confirm that the disk drive already found all of them and now the status is stable?
Please check: https://www.hdsentinel.com/faq_repair_hard_disk_drive.php
for more information about the situation (bad sectors, why testing is important - and if the status is stable, how to acknowledge them and be notified about possible new problems only).
If you have 100% sector-to-sector clone, then yes, it will simply act as a new C: drive if you swap them: ideally you can boot from it and use as is.
If this happens, you can use it as C: and then clone to the new drive if you prefer - or you can try to manually clone your current C: to the new drive.
This depends on your preference: do you prefer to use the current backup drive OR a brand new drive as system drive.
Before proceeding, I'd recommend to test the new drive, to confirm that it is perfectly working - or reveal any (even minor) issue before you start using in the system.
Please check: https://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#tests
for more details.
After replaced the drive, and there is nothing to lose, you can perform the above mentioned tests on your original C: drive, if you connect it as a secondary disk drive (for example by USB adapter/dock) exactly to verify the situation: confirm if the drive already found and reallocated all bad sectors (as they no longer cause troubles) or if there is any issue with it which may need to be fixed.
The current reported "bad sectors" already replaced by spare area, they do not cause issues, ideally disk tests will not show any problems. So there is no need to regenerate them in any ways.
The question is always: are there any further sectors which can damage/fail - or confirm that the disk drive already found all of them and now the status is stable?
Please check: https://www.hdsentinel.com/faq_repair_hard_disk_drive.php
for more information about the situation (bad sectors, why testing is important - and if the status is stable, how to acknowledge them and be notified about possible new problems only).