I've received a warning from American Megatrends that my Toshiba DT01ACA200 hard drive is failing, and I've got about 1.5TB of data on it. I've started using Acronis True Image to transfer the data to a Seagate External Drive, but it's taking a long time. I left it running all day while I was at work, and it only managed to copy a few gigabytes. The time remaining estimate is stuck, which makes me worried. Windows Explorer is just as slow, and I haven't tried the Seagate software yet. I'm considering connecting both the failing drive and the external hard drive to my laptop for a few days to continue the data recovery while minimizing risk to my desktop. Any advice on the safest way to recover my data would be appreciated.
3 Answers
Ideally, you want to have backups before a drive starts failing. Trying to recover data from a failing drive can often lead to more issues. The more you use it, the worse it can get. If necessary, consider using a professional data recovery service, especially with such a large amount of data.
I've also dealt with a Toshiba drive that failed. I had to clone it using the free version of Macrium. It worked well for me with a lower volume of data. If you can, set up an external USB dock and create a bootable USB to run Macrium. Keep in mind that trying to recover massive amounts of data from a failing drive can be really slow and risky.
First off, check the SMART status of your drive using tools like CrystalDiskInfo or HWInfo. This will give you an idea of what's going on with it. If it’s already failing, the best approach might be to buy a new hard drive and transfer everything over before it completely crashes.
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