Hard drive failing on older dell laptop

[DolphinFan]

Hard drive failing on older dell laptop.

I copied the entire drive to a portable 4TB drive.

I have programs that may not load on another hard drive.

Can I transfer all sate from old drive to new drive with programs and data working?

Thanks

[vino68]

You can try to clone the drive, but if it is failing, the clone process may not work.
There are a few freeware choices. Check this article out. https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-clone-a-hard-drive

[Robotron2k84]

Cloning software. Acronis, or similar.

You might run into cloning failures, however, if the source (failing) drive throws interrupts or bad block errors during the cloning process.

If it were me, I’d pull the failing drive and replace it, as step one, then use the failing drive via an external adapter (SATA to USB), and try to see if the native Windows partition cloning utility could make a copy. If successful, you could then boot off of the recovery partition and restore to the “C” drive partition on the new drive.

Worst case, in that scenario, is that you already did a fresh re-install, and can reload your programs, and if you have the data backed up, simply copy it back.

But, as a first attempt, I’d want to see if I could snap a clone with the drive still in the current state.

[techbill]

Check out https://www.crucial.com I got an SSD to replace an old HDD in an old laptop. And for 30 bucks or so, they sent an adapter so I could clone the drive first then replace it.
Basically the new SSD sits in a cradle fed by a USB port and you run their software to copy everything over. Then swap out the old HDD for the new SSD.

[SilveradoColt21]

If a hard drive fails, are you able to put one from a newer computer? or are they not compatible?

[Laetum]

Depending on how the drive is failing, sometimes Spin Rite software can be helpful.

[Reno-Kid]

Hard drive failing on older dell laptop.

I copied the entire drive to a portable 4TB drive.

I have programs that may not load on another hard drive.

Can I transfer all sate from old drive to new drive with programs and data working?

Thanks

Your application programs will not work. You cannot copy application programs since the installation of applications is spread across the operating system.

You can only start from scratch and install the same application program from the prior application program install file if they are compatible with the new operating system.

[sonofeugene]

When you get a new drive, and if you’re doing a fresh install of your operating system, do NOT have any other drives hooked up to the computer.

[bodeross]

just get the new laptop