Unreadable sections of C drive - cannot copy

[bullwinkle]

I always keep an Acronis copy of both my C drive and data drive.  I make this copy every month.  This month while copying the C drive Acronis stopped at the 3% mark and said that the sector on the C drive was unreadable, Retry, Ignore or Ignore All.  Retry didn't work.

When I hit Ignore All, the copy stayed at 3% permanently.  When I hit Ignore, I had to do it over and over and over as different sections kept showing up.  Finally after 30 minutes I hit Ignore All and it stalled again at 3%.

I attempted a CHKDSK of the C drive with the F option (I have Win XP) and was told that it would begin at the next bootup.  Well it did, but the results flew by so fast all I caught were the words "Bad Sectors".  Evidently the F option wasn't in play because the problem persisted.

Today I tried booting up using the disk that I was attempting to copy to, but that disk is now unbootable.

So I'm working with the same C drive but I'm flying without a parachute.  How can I get a successful copy of this drive?

Thank you.

[Geek-9pm]

You can not.
You can do this:
A. Buy another HDD.
B. Use the backup to restore an earlier version to the new drive.
C. Using the new drive, attempt to copy specific files you really need.
Reason:
The old HDD has errors that are beyond usual recovery. A forensic recovery is moire costly than what most users  users would pay. An attempt to repair that old HDD is pointless. 

[Allan]

For future reference, the command you wanted was chkdsk /r, not "f". The "r" switch would have attempted to recover the data on the bad sectors, relocate it to good sectors, and mark the bad sectors as unusable in the future.

What you want to do now is go to: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure you select the tool which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD (select "Write image file to disc" option), to make the CD bootable.
For Toshiba drives, see here: http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Path=ServicesSupport/FujitsuDrivesUSandCanada/SoftwareUtilities#diagnostic

Run the diagnostic and see if can repair your drive.

[bullwinkle]

Both solutions sound complicated to me and perhaps beyond my abilities.

Here's an idea - can i put my C drive in another computer and execute a CHKDSK /R on it?

Would that work?

[Allan]

There's nothing complicated about downloading a diagnostic utility, burning it to cd, and running it. It's certainly easier than what you're thinking about doing. It will also provide a more comprehensive diagnostic and repair attempt than checkdisk.

[bullwinkle]

Allan:

I'm already confused.  I went to the tacktech site, looked at the section titled Diagnostic Tools and Utilitites and selected WD (the brand of my current C drive).  I am now am looking at a sheet of various programs, all have the same description with different dates not listed in chronological order.
I selected the top one since this is a 320 GByte drive.

From that I selected the drive using the model nr.  Not knowing exactly where to go from here, I selected Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows.  Do I download this and run a diagnostic?

I didn't see anything regarding the creation of a bootable CD.

Geek:

How do I use the backup to restore the drive to a new HDD?  What procedure/software do I use?

[Allan]

You want the data lifeguard version for dos. Burn it to cd, boot to it and run it.

[Geek-9pm]

bullwinkle,
My assumption was that you had a backup system image on a backup drive created by Acronis.  And you have the Acronis recovery CD.
https://kb.acronis.com/content/4828

But go ahead and  do what Allan aid about using a bootable HDD diagnostic for a WD HDD. If that works, it would be the  the best solution. 

[Allan]

And as Geek said - if you do have a usable image then you can restore it to a new HD. It seems you multiple options.

[bullwinkle]

I do not have an Acronis bootable recovery CD.  I will try and execute Alan's plan as best as I can later tonight.

I am sure I will have further questions.  Thanks to both of you for your help in this.

[Allan]

I should mention that if your hd is badly corrupted it's very possible that even the manufacturer's utility won't help. But it is your best bet.

BTW, I'm a bit confused. I thought you said you've been creating images every month. You should have an image you can use if needed, no?

[bullwinkle]

What I do every month is clone my 2 drives to 2 duplicate drives.  I don't have a bootable CD.

[Geek-9pm]

...
My assumption was that you had a backup system image on a backup drive created by Acronis.  And you have the Acronis recovery CD.
https://kb.acronis.com/content/4828
...

Read the link.

[bullwinkle]

I purchased and downloaded Acronis several years ago.  I do not have the serial number and am not registered, so therefore I do not have a bootable CD from them.

[bullwinkle]

So this is where I'm at.  I have downloaded the DOSDLG program (for DOS) for WD hard drives.

The instructions say to back up your data on the drive first.  I can't do that.  Then it says to copy the files to a bootable CD and boot the system off of the CD to run the program.  But I don't have a bootable CD.  What to do?

Would a SYS command from my C drive to a blank CD work? 

Also, there are many switches on this program.  Which one/s should I use?