One of my HDs boots ok, but a clone job results in the target showing no Win7 OS.
The boot drive shows yellow in CrystalDiskInfo which is a bad sign I know. To just get the
copy completed and knowing the HD does bootup, will running chkdsk /f/r/c provide a bad sctor fix?

I have good backup, but having the problem occur after running chkdsk /f always before using Norton Ghost gave me what looked like some damaged writes to the target. The Norton program did report finding bad sectors but I took the option to run to completion. This gave some strange readings in the run and went really slow gradually adding a bit of speed as the run took place overnight.

No. Replace the HDD and write again. If HDD fails SMART don't use it, not worth your time.

OK if that's the case I'll have to pull off significant folders if I can get to them.

Thanks for the advice.

If you need data from that drive then do not run chkdsk. Instead clone using for example HDDSuperClone or ddrescue. Then recover files from the clone / disk image.

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Joep - http://www.disktuna.com - video & photo repair & recovery service

Ok I won't run chkdsk any more on that one. It did get throught the routine I had
started. I've used Norton Ghost for a long time. I tried other ones but some are Linux based etc and prone to errorrs. I make a fresh Ghost when needed. All of my stuff is old.

Just now I am able to get the media files up to a free cloud account for safety. I also have
a small homenet so I'll send the needed media files to that setup. I use a mirror system for backup-- nothing elaborate but I never found the advantage of using images and all that. If your sole system gets hosed, there's no alternative. I'm using the mirror boot drive right now.

thanks for answering.