Safest snapshot of a failing harddrive?

Posted by ironfroggy on Super User See other posts from Super User or by ironfroggy
Published on 2009-08-17T15:59:26Z Indexed on 2010/05/05 4:48 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 228

Filed under:

hard-drive

|

failure

|

backup

|

storage

I have a headless machine that stopped booting, so I pulled it out for diagnostics and got a message that one of the harddrives was about to fail, so I pulled them all out and I need to get everything off, before figuring out which I need to get rid of. I wasn't sure which drive was failing, because it only said "Harddrive 1" and I don't know which it referred to.

I'm wondering the best way to get everything off. I'm worried if I copy everything, I could get corrupt data and not realize some files are wrong until the drive is completely out of commission. What are my best options to get everything off in a way I can safely move to new storage?

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about hard-drive

Move smaller hard drive to partition on a larger hard drive

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
My parents bought a new hard drive for a laptop that I've owned for several years. It's much larger than the current one, so I plan on splitting it up to dual boot it with Ubuntu. I have no problem with partitioning a drive (I always keep a LiveCD handy), but my question is this: how can I go about… >>> More
Copy the contents of one hard drive partition to anohter hard drive partition

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have made a C++ program which can copy the whole hardrive partition to another hardrive partition, but now I am looking forward for the program which can only copy the contents of one hardrive partiton to another hardrive partition. >>> More
Using an ATA-100 Hard Drive with a Thermaltake BlacX External Hard Drive Dock

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Is it possible for a Thermaltake BlacX HDD Dock to connect to and recognize an ATA-100 Hard Drive? I know that the specifications for the BlacX say that it only supports SATA & SATAII, but I was hoping for one of three things: 1) for it to still work even though it isn't supported 2) for there… >>> More
backup hard drive image on external hard drive for Windows 7

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Hello, I am looking for a backup tool for Windows 7, that will allow me to backup my laptop’s hard drive on an external hard drive as an exact image. In a case of a problem with the main hard drive, I would like just to swap the drives and to continue to work using the backup hard drive. Thanks >>> More
Copy the contents of one hard drive partition to anohter hard drive partition

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have made a C++ program which can copy the whole hardrive partition to another hardrive partition, but now I am looking forward for the program which can only copy the contents of one hardrive partiton to another hardrive partition. >>> More

Related posts about failure

Installing PhotoShop CS5 in windows XP error: (when up to 12% of the installation);

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Error Log: ---------- Exit Code: 6 -------------------------------------- Summary -------------------------------------- - 0 fatal error(s), 43 error(s), 41 warning(s) WARNING: The payload: Adobe Photoshop CS5 Core {7DFEBBA4-81E1-425B-BBAA-06E9E5BBD97E} requires a UI parent with following… >>> More
Ubuntu Server - Power failure leads to boot failure

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have installed Ubuntu Server 10.04.1 LTS on an ext4 partition. Whenever my system looses power suddenly, It doesn't boot into the normal procedure to fix the problems automatically, but switches to the busy box shell (where it says Kernel Panic : No init found) So I guess kernel is refusing to… >>> More
Moonlight's Olympic-sized failure

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
<b>ZDNet Australia: </b>"Every couple of years, Microsoft and its partners get to show off what the technology is capable of and push the limits of live video coverage. This year, the plethora of Canadian channels covering the Olympics were all available live from one website, and… >>> More
Why does apt-get fail to resolve the mirror?

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I know this has been covered before, but I can't seem to resolve my issue. Here is my output. jake@KUBIE-SERVER:~$ sudo apt-get update Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com precise InRelease Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com precise-updates InRelease Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com precise-backports… >>> More
I can't boot into Ubuntu "Try (hd0,0): NTFS5: No ang0" Error Message

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I recently installed Ubuntu 12.04 alongside windows 7. It was working fine but now when I try to boot with ubuntu after the operating system choice screen I get this. Boot Error Message Try (hd0,0): NFTS5: No ang0 Try (hd0,1): NTFS5: No ang0 Try (hd0,2): NTFS5: No ang0 Try (hd0,3): Extended: Try… >>> More