[ale] OT: Migrating off dying HDD

[Bob Toxen]

Put the drive in your refrigerator or freezer, either near the fan or
also put a small fan in.

If you still cannot get more than a few minutes operations, either
rsync (like someone else suggested) or use the dd program to copy until
it dies, then cool and re-invoke dd with the skil and seek options
to pick up after the last good block already copied.

Bob Toxen
bob at verysecurelinux.com               [Please use for email to me]
http://www.verysecurelinux.com        [Network&Linux/Unix security consulting]
http://www.realworldlinuxsecurity.com [My book:"Real World Linux Security 2/e"]
Quality Linux & UNIX security and SysAdmin & software consulting since 1990.

"Microsoft: Unsafe at any clock speed!"
   -- Bob Toxen 10/03/2002

On Mon, Nov 14, 2005 at 01:05:25PM -0500, John Mills wrote:
> ALErs -
> 
> I have a problem repairing a friend's MsWin Dell 'Inspiron 2600' notebook.
> 
> The old HDD will only run a few minutes before it ceases to respond,
> probably due to internal overheating. I get the same results when the HDD
> is extended externally on a 'Simple Drive' PCMCIA adapter, so I really
> think it's the HDD that is causing the problem, not general internal
> overheating of the laptop.
> 
> No problem installing a new drive (now done, in fact), but I foresee a
> long and painful migration of user data, even after a clean &8-) MsWin
> reinstallation from CD.
> 
> The drive's current, usable half-life is far too little to transfer any 
> great fraction of [say] the user's documents, etc. I get perhaps 300 MBy, 
> then it clams up. Turn off, cool down, try again, and repeat ...
> 
> Questions:
> 
>  1. What directories should I copy first to migrate e-mail and web links
> of importance?
> 
>  2. It would sure be nice to migrate the whole installation if 
> I can find a suitable MS tool. Any recommendations?
> 
>  3. Other than a fan, any clever ideas to keep this #$%&!! working long
> enough to dump a good fraction of its data? (I plan setting it on a
> cold-block and see if that helps.)
> 
> I have MsWin and Linux both available as hosts, FWIW. I also have an
> adapter to connect the 2.5" notebook HDD to a standard PC-format IDE
> controller.
> 
> Thanks for any guidance.
> 
>  - John Mills
>    john.m.mills at alum.mit.edu
> 
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