Windows 7 Restore to a Different Drive

Steve_L

I have some bad sectors on my C drive. Evidently, these are preventing me from upgrading Windows 7 to Windows 10. In the hope that they're caused by software problems and not physical damage, I need to format my C drive. 
I already have two hard disc drives (C for Windows and programs and D for data). I also have a spare hard disc drive and a cunning plan, which doesn't involve a turnip ....
Backup C to D. Temporarily replace my CD/DVD rewriter (E) with the spare hard disc drive. Add the new hard disc to the top of the list of boot drives in the BIOS. Restore from D to E. Disconnect the power lead from C and test that the system boots from E. Reconnect the power lead to C. Format C. Restore from E to C. Reboot and run CHKDSK on C whilst crossing my fingers. 
But ... how do you select E as the destination drive for the first restore? 
I can't be the first person with a dodgy C drive that's need to do this but, as one has come to expect, Microsoft don't make it obvious. Online sources all seem to assume that you're restoring to the existing C drive. 

PS. I haven't included the semicolon after the drive letters as this generates emoticons. 

grumpycrab

I stopped reading at "I have a spare hard drive".  Clean install Windows 10 to it.

Neil_Jones

Bad sectors are hardware problems.  The drive is on the way out.  Replace it.

Neil49

I suggest that you involve a few turnips and buy an ssd to replace your c drive.

Follow the advice given in the above 2 replies and you won't regret it. 

Steve_L

grumpycrab said:

I stopped reading at "I have a spare hard drive".  Clean install Windows 10 to it.

It's old and only just big enough for Windows 10, not my two big programs (Office (even if just Excel, Outlook & Word) and Photoshop) as well. 

Steve_L

Neil_Jones said:

Bad sectors are hardware problems.  The drive is on the way out.  Replace it.

I was taught that they can be "soft" or "hard". Soft or logical bad sectors are due to software issues. For example, if, due to a power cut, the PC and hard disc drive shuts down suddenly & totally while it's writing data (which Windows does a lot) , the sector(s) being written to may be affected. When your computer tries to read data from such a sector, it may find that error correcting code doesn’t match the sector contents. Therefore, the sector can't be read. 
The fact that CHKDSK /F hasn't been able to fix them doesn't rule out a soft bad sector.  A format might sort them out. If the sectors are still there after this, then they're either soft and unrepairable or hard.
Hard or physical bad sectors are due to either the read/write head hitting the disc due to being dropped or something like a smoke particle getting into the drive then getting in between the read/write head and the disc and scoring the surface. 
There are only 4kB of bad sectors. It's a 250GB disc, so that's probably just one sector but, apparently, somehow, that's enough to make the installation of Windows 10 freeze. I've installed other programs, but they're nowhere near as big as Windows 10. The 32-bit version is approx 9GB. 

However, the drive must be at least 13 years old. A similarly sized replacement isn't expensive and might prevent me being in the same position when I upgrade to Windows 11. 

grumpycrab

Steve_L said:

grumpycrab said:

I stopped reading at "I have a spare hard drive".  Clean install Windows 10 to it.

It's old and only just big enough for Windows 10, not my two big programs (Office (even if just Excel, Outlook & Word) and Photoshop) as well. 

Time for a shiny new disk then (ssd).  PS. As I've suggested a clean install I have to ask what version of Office you have.  IE do you have the software for reinstallation and key?

Neil_Jones

Steve_L said:

Neil_Jones said:

Bad sectors are hardware problems.  The drive is on the way out.  Replace it.

I was taught that they can be "soft" or "hard". Soft or logical bad sectors are due to software issues. For example, if, due to a power cut, the PC and hard disc drive shuts down suddenly & totally while it's writing data (which Windows does a lot) , the sector(s) being written to may be affected. When your computer tries to read data from such a sector, it may find that error correcting code doesn’t match the sector contents. Therefore, the sector can't be read. 

Modern hard drives use software in their firmware control to keep track of sectors that have problems and mark them bad so that they appear in the CHKDSK logs.  You will probably have more that appear in the log over time and the mechanical speed of the drive will deteriorate.

Once bad sectors start showing up in the logs its a sign that they will get progressively worse, and what you're doing with software that claims to be able to fix these is effectively wallpapering over the issue, without addressing the underlying issue, which in your case is:  Your drive is old.

and there is no such thing as Windows 11.  There will never be a Windows 11, so if you're holding off your upgrade, you're going to be waiting a ridiculously long time for anything after 10.

a

Another vote for turnips.

I would think although your cd drive is unplugable, it has a cd drive sata connector that does not fit a standard sata hdd, so you will have to buy a one of two thicknesses of sata caddy, then one which has the correct type caddy to laptop connector. It is Easier to buy a usb to sata cable.

With two drives, you would clone one drive to another. With one drive you would restore a backup or restore a cloned image. s others say, do a clean install, as I am not sure if a clone or restore will enable trim, or do background defrags.

A little devil on my shoulder made me put the picture up

TheRightOne

Steve_L said:

I have some bad sectors on my C drive. Evidently, these are preventing me from upgrading Windows 7 to Windows 10. In the hope that they're caused by software problems and not physical damage, I need to format my C drive. 
I already have two hard disc drives (C for Windows and programs and D for data). I also have a spare hard disc drive and a cunning plan, which doesn't involve a turnip ....
Backup C to D. Temporarily replace my CD/DVD rewriter (E) with the spare hard disc drive. Add the new hard disc to the top of the list of boot drives in the BIOS. Restore from D to E. Disconnect the power lead from C and test that the system boots from E. Reconnect the power lead to C. Format C. Restore from E to C. Reboot and run CHKDSK on C whilst crossing my fingers. 
But ... how do you select E as the destination drive for the first restore? 
I can't be the first person with a dodgy C drive that's need to do this but, as one has come to expect, Microsoft don't make it obvious. Online sources all seem to assume that you're restoring to the existing C drive. 

PS. I haven't included the semicolon after the drive letters as this generates emoticons. 

What a ridiculously long winded approach.

You can do a Sector by Sector clone from old HDD to new SSD.
But best is to...
Back up Favourites and Bookmarks from your Browsers. Take note of any product keys of installed software
Utilise GenuineTicket method to back up activation.
Install SSD. Install Windows 10 to SSD. Reinstall Browsers and apply Favourites/Bookmarks. Reinstall programs Unplug leads from old D drive and connect them to old C Drive. Transfer docs, pics etc to new SSD from old C drive.

grumpycrab

TheRightOne said

Transfer docs, pics etc to new SSD from old C drive.

Good approach.  The main thing under "etc" that regularly catches me out is where people store email locally, whether that be because they've used POP from when time began or through use of Storage or Local folders.