Cloning a disk with bad sectors

[yehuda]

Hi,

When cloning a system drive with bad sectors, how would I go about telling which files could not be copied? I need this information to be sure that the data on the destination drive is 100% complete.

I use bootable Acronis True Image 2009.

Thanks

[Vulcan]

When cloning a system drive with bad sectors, how would I go about telling which files could not be copied?

[...]

I use bootable Acronis True Image 2009.

(a) For several reasons, I would not use ATI to clone a disk with unstable/unreadable sectors. It is unlikely to be the optimal software-only cloning approach for this situation IMHO.

(b) If you have enough Linux/Unix (and ddrescue) skills, then after using GNU ddrescue to clone the disk, this thread explains how you can tell which files were affected by unreadable blocks if the necessary filesystem metadata was fully readable from the "problem" disk:

any-interest-ddrescue-script-find-bad-files-t22392.html

[poehere]

For free cloning DDrescue is the best one. Other wise you have to invest in a tool that can clone and do this one for you. They are as follows

1. DDI
2. Atola
3. DC
4. UDMA + DE

They are not cheap either. It is a lot less expensive to take it to a company who ownes these tools and have them do it for you or try with DDrescue.

[yehuda]

Hi guys

The drive is healthy for the most part and I have a full backup. I believe there are only a few bad sectors. The system is bootable. The only reason I want to clone the drive is to preserve the current installation, which would take a long time to rebuild from scratch. I do not have a system image.

[Vulcan]

@yehuda,

I have a full backup.
[...]
I do not have a system image.

You haven't given enough details for me to understand what difference you mean between your two points above. They appear to contrdict each other, depending on how a reader interprets "full backup". Perhaps you mean that you have a fulll data-only backup, but that excludes the OS and application installation, and therefore you don't have a backup to be able to restore the whole system... But my guess could be wrong due to the limited info supplied, and perhaps you mean something else.

Anyway, I didn't see a question in your last reply, so I can't add any other comment. If you have a specific question, please ask it clearly and also explain why the previous replies haven't already answered that question.

[yehuda]

Hi,

I have a full data-only backup, so this event is not catastrophic for me. If the drive had completely died, or seriously degraded, I would have proceeded to reinstall the OS and restore files from backup.

In this event however the system seems okay. If I hadn't casually checked Windows System Logs I would not have been aware of it at all. I know that Windows 7 is wise enough to throw a warning when it detects a serious IO error, but I haven't seen a popup yet. Seems to me, this issue is relatively minor.

I would very much like to clone the drive to a new drive and continue to use the current installation. My only concern is making sure that everything was copied. I can't bear the consequences of leaving data behind.

I understand you've offered a working solution in your first reply, and I'm very grateful. Having said that, even though I can use linux I do not have experience with ddrescue and frankly don't think I'll use the script at this time. Can you perhaps recommend another utility, preferably GUI--a comparable alternative to ATI that can provide error information at file level instead of sector level?

Thanks

[Vulcan]

Thanks for explaining what you meant in your earlier comment.

Can you perhaps recommend another utility, preferably GUI--a comparable alternative to ATI that can provide error information at file level instead of sector level?

Unfortunately, no. I have only done this in the past, by parsing the ddrescue logfile. Perhaps other readers will know about a utility which fits your specific requirements.

[yehuda]

Okay thanks.