Hard Drive Failing

[Katman_09]

Hello,

I'm trying to help a friend fix his computer but I'm kind of having some problems.  Currently, his hard drive started clicking which at this point i'm sure he needed a new hard drive.  So, we wanted to get his data off of his current drive and put it on an external drive, boot from the external and then copy the data onto the new drive.  Well, we started copying data from the drive to the external until it started locking up and then we were only able to get into Safe Mode which ended up locking up as well.  I thought about using the command prompt to copy data but not as familiar with doing that.  What can i do to copy the data from the C: Drive unto his external G: drive so that the system will be able to boot up from the external drive? 
Once able to get the data over, i thought i would need to get into the setup menu and change the boot drive.  Is this correct?  Obviously i'll need to get the data over first.  Any ideas?

[Aneez]

the command to copy everything from C: to G: will be, copy *.* G: , While you are in the root directory in c:.

but note that, you will not be able to boot from the external drive unless you install windows/OS in it.

[patio]

If the drive is freezing up from the "clik of Death" there's nothing you can do other than take it to a Data Recovery service...expensive.
This is why a good backup strategy is a must...i'd start considering one for the new setup.