[Old生常谈] Ignore bad sectors during copy process

Updated by Linda on Sep 14, 2021, Contributed to Disk/Partition Clone | How-to Guides

What are bad sectors?

Bad sectors refer to sectors on a computer hard drive or flash memory that become inaccessible or unwritable due to permanent damage, such as physical damage to the disk surface or failure of flash memory transistors. Bad sectors are typically detected by disk utility software, like CHKDSK or SCANDISK in Microsoft systems, or bad blocks in Unix-like systems. There are two main types of bad sectors: physical bad sectors and logical bad sectors.

Physical bad sectors are damaged areas on the hard drive. For example, there might be too much dust accumulation on the HDD or the memory cells could be worn out. These sectors cannot be repaired.

A logical bad sector is a group of storage clusters on a hard drive that appears to be malfunctioning. The operating system may attempt to read data from the sector on the hard drive but find that the error correction code (ECC) doesn't match the sector's contents, indicating an issue. You can fix this bad sector by overwriting the hard drive with zeroes.

Can bad sectors be copied?

No, bad sectors cannot be copied! Bad sectors are inaccessible, meaning they cannot be read from or written to. The cloning or copying process involves reading from the source sector and writing to the target sector. When there are bad sectors that are inaccessible, they cannot be copied. While bad sectors themselves cannot be duplicated, you can still copy or clone a disk to retrieve undamaged data from other sectors while ignoring the bad sectors.

How can I ignore bad sectors during a copy process?

Bad sectors cannot be copied or cloned, but you still need to retrieve data from the hard drive, or copy a hard drive or other storage device with bad sectors. What can you do?

There is still hope! You can use a disk cloning tool like Disk Copy to clone the disk. This reliable and professional disk cloning software can help you clone the disk while ignoring bad sectors.

This software supports sector-by-sector cloning, meaning it can copy sectors while simultaneously skipping bad ones. In other words, this tool enables you to ignore bad sectors and replicate all remaining or undamaged data on a hard drive or other storage device. Now, follow the detailed steps below to clone data without damaged sectors.

Note

Make sure you select sector-by-sector copying.

Video Tutorial: How to Copy Data and Skip Bad Sectors

Here are the steps to clone everything from an old disk to a new one, skipping over bad sectors:

Steps to copy data and skip bad sectors: 1. **选择合适的工具**: 首先，你需要一个能够检测和跳过坏扇区的数据恢复或克隆工具。例如，Clonezilla、HDClone 或 Disk Utility (对于 macOS 用户)。 2. **创建可启动媒体**: 根据你选择的工具，下载相应的ISO映像文件，并将其刻录到USB驱动器或DVD上，以便从这个可启动媒体启动你的计算机。 3. **连接源和目标硬盘**: 将包含坏扇区的源硬盘和用于复制的新硬盘（或足够大的外部存储设备）连接到你的电脑。确保它们都被正确识别。 4. **启动电脑并进入工具**: 重启电脑，从你创建的可启动媒体启动。进入你选择的数据恢复或克隆工具。 5. **选择源和目标**: 在工具的界面中，选择源硬盘（有坏扇区的硬盘）和目标硬盘（新硬盘）。 6. **启用坏扇区跳过功能**: 在工具的设置中，查找“坏扇区跳过”、“忽略错误”或类似的选项。确保这个选项被启用，这样在复制过程中遇到坏扇区时，工具会自动跳过它们。 7. **开始复制过程**: 确认所有设置无误后，开始复制过程。工具将尝试读取源硬盘上的所有数据，并在遇到坏扇区时跳过它们。 8. **监控进度**: 在复制过程中，密切监视进度和任何警告消息。如果工具报告了大量坏扇区，可能需要考虑更全面的数据恢复服务。 9. **完成并验证**: 当复制完成后，断开源硬盘的连接，并将目标硬盘连接到电脑。检查新硬盘上的数据是否完整，确保所有重要的文件和文件夹都已成功复制。 10. **备份重要数据**: 一旦确认数据已成功复制，务必备份这些重要数据到另一个安全的位置，以防止未来可能出现的故障。 请记住，虽然这些步骤可以帮助你复制数据并绕过坏扇区，但坏扇区可能是硬盘即将失败的信号。尽快备份数据并考虑更换硬盘是明智的选择。

Note

Make sure you select to copy on a sector-by-sector basis.

Step 1: Download, install, and run a disk cloning tool on your computer.

Click “Disk Mode,” then select the disk that you want to copy or clone. Click “Next” to continue.

Step 2: Select the target disk.

Note: If you are copying or cloning a source disk, the target disk should be at least as large as the source disk.

Step 3: If prompted, confirm that you want to erase the data on the target disk.

Step 4: Check and edit the disk layout.

If your target disk is an SSD, make sure to check the “Target is SSD” box.

Step 5: Click “ Proceed ” to start the hard drive cloning process.