this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023
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Data Hoarder

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Hard drive I use for games (so very large files) which is almost full has been giving me an error every now and again when attempting to access certain folders on the HDD. After a restart, my pc can access the folders in question. However, after a few hours the error will come back. After a bit of research, it sounds like it's on it's way out. I've attempted CHKDSK which I've left on for 3 days, running extremely slowly.

Unfortunately it's now stuck at 53% (screenshot: https://i.postimg.cc/qBCp37Rc/image-2023-11-13-113638901.png) and hasn't moved for 24 hours so I don't see it moving any further.

I understand this isn't a tech support reddit but I was wondering if anybody has some advice on the best/quickest way to transfer this data to another HDD. As the HDD tends to fail at random points after a few hours, I can't simply copy and paste it ALL in one go. Am I just going to have to simply copy and paste the files I need manually over a period of time? Or can anybody advise on a better way?

Thanks in advance.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Do not run chkdsk m8, you're stressing it out

Pick files that are the most important first, keep copying and hope that your drive lasts until you've got it all.

Spin down the drive might render it inoperable the next time you plug it in

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I would recommend using ddrescue. It can copy block by block, can skip over slower or error prone regions to prioritize good sectors.

I used it to pull 2tb from a dying drive. It was able to pull 1tb in about 4 hours, and took about 2 weeks to clone the remaining 1tb. But it successfully pulled all data with no errors in the end. Saved my 8tb raid array.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

If you can still read it, I would start just manually copying the most important files one by one.