Copy bad HD to a good HD

[Karl F. Larsen]

Leonard Chatagnier wrote:
> Karl F. Larsen wrote:
>> Shannon McMackin wrote:
>>> Karl F. Larsen wrote:
>>>> Jan Litwiñski wrote:
>>>>> G'day Karl,
>> 	Happy to say, I was able to get the bad HD to run on this
>> computer after setting it for "Cable Select (CS). I learned
>> this from a friend. The bad HD is now running on this computer.
>>
>> 	I used dd to copy the bad HD to my /dev/sda13 partition but
>> it was done wrong I think. The bad HD has two windows
>> programs, one on C: and one on D: and don't ask me why. I
>> copied both C: and D: to the same partition which is wrong it
>> appears...
>>
>> 	Now the bad HD can be mounted and files copied to a cd. I
>> will try to get this done asap.
>>
>> 73 Karl
>>
>>
> What version of windows? 

	It is windowsXP put on the HD in 1998.

  The later versions, Vista for sure, have
> two partitions; one is the OS and the other is a recovery partition
> you use when you want to restore a corrupted windows(MS doesn't put out 
> install CDs any more to machine purchasers). 


	Yes that is how my laptop is with Vista.


  they should
> be on separate partitions and they are.  Probably your best bet is
> to erase the double copied partition; create another one and copy each
> windows partition to a separate one.

	The C: and D: seem to be kind of the same thing. Not sure 
why. I had to look at the Quicken files to tell which one has 
been used up to the time it crashed. The C: has 2009 data 
files so it is the one used up to the crash.


   You should know what the second
> partition is for even if you have to boot to it to find out.  But
> don't start the recovery operation unless that's what you want to do.
> Your saying that your hard drive is bad but are you sure. Just because
> it wont boot doesn't mean the drive is necessarily bad in spite of many'
> recommendations to just replace it.

	Yes I was told twice by "experts" in our computer store that 
the HD is bad. But I mounted the C: and then used sudo cp -a * 
/home/karl/nita-computer and this took awhile but it completed 
and I have her old computer on a good HD now




  Have you tested with test disk or
> other disk utilities and found that it was bad. Before I would replace 
> it I would use the recovery partition, if you have that in D: to see if 
> you can make it boot. 

	The problem is that the HD looks to windows as a single 
source with C: and D: partitions. In Linux they are /dev/sdb1 
and 2. So I can sort them out in Linux.


  If that doesn't work, I would recover all the
> data possible; then repartition the drive and reinstall.

	Nope, this HD was bought in 1998 and it might have been 
older...the HD will goto the sanitary land fill when I'm sure 
dd got everything off, which it did.

	Also, when I looked with Gparted my HD came right up and was 
displayed. It takes 2-5 minutes before it displays the bad HD.


   Same happened
> to me, bought a second hand drive and installed again, then 
> repartitioned the so called bad drive that wouldn't boot and reinstalled 
> to it again and now have two good drives on that old(1997 Dell) machine. 
>   My experience, contrary to most recomendations, is that old drives 
> have sectors go out(can't write to them) but if you
> mark the bad sectors after repartitioning and reinstall you may have
> much life left in the old drive.  In my case, that old bad drive is 
> still working after about two year from marking the bad sectors.  FWIW,
> 
> 

	Thanks and thanks to all who have helped. I have everything 
underhand now. I still need to put this old system on my 
wife's computer which will be easy. See has Linux and grub so 
she can boot 3 things soon.

73 Karl

-- 

	Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
	Linux User
	#450462   http://counter.li.org.
         Key ID = 3951B48D