Need help finding the fastest way to do a full backup of an HDD

I noticed sparks coming out of the wall socket where my PC was plugged into so I had someone else help me swap it to another wall. However, I didn't think about the PSU switch still being on and this person jerked the cord in and out as electricity was visible each time. Right away I realized I forgot about the PSU as my motherboard lights went on and off twice. When I turned my PC back on everything was fine for a moment until I started hearing a low frequency shuttering or low click sound every so often. Then I heard it repeating a little more as the minutes continued. I was using my PC for a good hour while this was still happening until I could move PC and listen from the back and that's when the sound became more prominent and targetable. I believe it's my WD black 4TB HDD. I've kept my PC off for a few days now. I'm going to buy another external WD mybook drive for both my OS SSD nvme drive, as well as the WD black drive. I'll likely disconnect the HDD and backup up my OS SSD drive in the meantime and then backup my HDD after.

My question is: what is the fastest way to do a fullback backup of the 4TB HDD? Should I copy everything over bit by bit to my SSD drive, selecting my most important files or should I copy and paste these to the external drive? I think the external drive will be slower but I'll be able to take all the contents off the HDD and put it on MyBook external drive. If I go with the external drive transfer option, should I do a full backup? I don't know how long that would take and if the clicking is indicative of a serious problem I don't want to wait that long.

Edited by hamluis, 06 December 2023 - 03:58 AM.
Moved from IH to Backup/Imaging - Hamluis.

Stop using your computer until you get a backup.

I suggest: Use a different computer to download Macrium Reflect free and download to a flash drive. OR you can download from the MR website and get 30 day trial for free, but I think it will install from the website.

Macrium will prompt you to create and emergency restore disk (or flash drive). Be sure to do it, you will need it for the restore to a new drive.

>Install from the flash drive on to your computer.

>For backup I suggest an external SSD if at all possible, even if you have to borrow one. Much faster. A HDD will work in a pinch. Make sure it is formatted NTFS. If you have either one already, just connect to your computer internally, or use a docking station.

>Create an image backup (not a clone!) of your entire system, including all data files.

>Get a new drive, make sure it is not smaller than your present drive. Format NTFS.

>Restore that image to the new drive and you are on your way.

Here is my tutorial; it may vary slightly, but you can figure out any small differences:

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Edited by ranchhand_, 05 December 2023 - 11:16 PM.

Hi, thank you for the suggestion.

Just to clarify, I have 6 TB altogether from two different drives. My internal SSD, which is my OS drive, and my WD black 4TB drive. Not all of it is super important. My music however is my biggest priority and that's on the SSD.

Considering this, I would need an external drive higher than the space I have that I need to backup, correct? Would a WD MyBook 12TB be a good option, or should I find a faster external drive such as a 6TB SanDisk SSD?

Here's the link to the one I'm thinking would be a good choice. Not sure how reliable this will be though.

SanDisk Professional 8TB G-Drive Enterprise-Class External Desktop Hard Drive - 7200RPM Ultrastar HDD Inside, USB-C (10Gbps), USB 3.2 Gen 2, Mac Ready - SDPHF1A-008T-NBAAD https://a.co/d/2WAPRGw

Considering the WD Black drive is a HDD, the read and write speeds will be slowed down regardless if I use the MyBook or the SanDisk SSD. I think WD has a warranty for any product bought from them too, not sure about SanDisk.

How long would it take to do an image backup of both the drives at once to the external SSD? And should I disconnect my WD Black HDD in the meantime while I format the SSD? I want to right away plug the USB in and do the backup as soon as possible without having to do anything else.

I'm still thinking it might be best to back up my OS drive entirely first, and then plug my WD black HDD back in after and do that one separately.

delete

wrong thread

sorry

Edited by MoxieMomma, 06 December 2023 - 08:26 AM.

It will take as long as it takes.  Consumer grade spinning rust (HDDs) rarely sustain more than 150 MiB/sec even when it's not hanging off a USB.  While it's likely to take at least 2-3 hours, there's no way to know for sure how long it will actually take because file type, size, compression, age of the drives, and even where the data is being stored on disk for HDDs matters for throughput.  Any SSDs that are suffering from read disturbance will add to that time table.  Doesn't include any errors that might crop up in the read process due to damage. Be SURE you verify the data you just saved!

@OP:

 

I would need an external drive higher than the space I have that I need to backup, correct?

Yes. M.Reflect has different compressing options, but the more you compress the longer the imaging backup takes. I think time is of the essence from what you post.

If music is your main concern, I suggest getting the biggest SSD drive you can afford and directly save your music on it, as opposed to making an image of the whole system every time you add music to it.

You might be interested in a docking station; for the reasonable price, it is very convenient to pop in & out different drives with various important data on them. The one I linked takes max 18TB drive, both SSD and HDD. I have one of these for both my wife's computer and mine, I set up backup systems for several friends and never had a problem with them. Look over Amazon's selection, you might find one you like better.

 

I don't know anything about the Sandisk drive, but Sandisk is certainly a respected name for quality.

 

 

I'm still thinking it might be best to back up my OS drive entirely first, and then plug my WD black HDD back in after and do that one separately.

Excellent planning. Save your data first, however. OS's can be replaced, but favorite songs will be harder. I have two backups of my fav music, one on a flash drive that I use in the car, and one on a separate SSD drive that I keep in a drawer. Then I have another SSD that I do all my system backups on, and I keep at least 3 backups on the one drive.

That, incidentally, is another great feature of image backups; they are a single, compressed file and you can keep several on a backup drive. Just name them the date you made them and they are easy to distinguish one from another.

Also....another totally great feature...all images can be accessed in realtime and all files/data can be read, or even drag & dropped onto the currently running desktop. Not long ago I accidentally deleted some important data files. All I did was boot up the last image, find that data and drag & drop it off the backup onto my desktop. 2 minutes later I had it all again.

Your time question:  Hdd's will take longer than SSD's but cost a lot less for far more space. All you do is start the backup before you go to bed, enable the "shutdown after completion" option and in the AM the backup is done and the computer is shut down.

Just be really  sure to keep all backups of your OS & data OFF COMPUTER! Then if you get hit by ransomware, malware or a system crash, just pull out your last backup, restore to the main drive, and in a few minutes you are back up and running normally. Can't beat that with a stick!

Please post a speccy link with all your drives plugged in.

 

Publishing a Speccy profile to the Web

To keep a record of your system profile at any given time, you can publish to the Web using Speccy.  Speccy uses Piriform's servers to publish the profile without any identifying information. Each profile is given a unique URL.

 

The last part of each URL is randomized, so only people you provide with the URL will be able to find your profile.

Direct Download Here

 

What you are doing is copying a Link from the Speccy tool and pasting it in your next post.

 

To publish a Speccy profile to the Web:

 

1. In Speccy, click File, and then click Publish Snapshot.
2. In the Publish Snapshot dialog box, click; Yes to enable Speccy to proceed.
3. Speccy publishes the profile and displays a second Publish Snapshot. You can open the URL in your default browser, copy it to the clipboard, or close the dialog box.

Note: The published profile will use the same language and temperature settings (Imperial or Metric) as your Speccy installation.

 

Note: Each time you start Speccy, it will generate a new randomized URL. This is useful if you want to track your computer's information over time.

 

Credit to Piriform

Hi, @ranchhand_

Thanks for the info and replies.

I have a Wavlink, and clear, slideable docking station. I might put the SSD in the clear one. I forgot the Wavlink model, but it's a larger, silver type similar to the black ones.

I was wondering if I could also use the Windows 10 image backup as an option. Does it have similar compression settings as a third party software like Macroum Reflect free?

I have this article I could follow. Might be best to watch a YouTube video on the step by step process so I know exactly what to do so I can quickly back everything up.

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-make-full-backup-windows-10

Sorry, wrong Thread

Edited by wee-eddie, 06 December 2023 - 05:08 PM.

I was wondering if I could also use the Windows 10 image backup as an option. Does it have similar compression settings as a third party software like Macrium Reflect free?

I Never use the Inbuilt Tools from MS, they are junk IMO.

I agree with pcpunk above. Do not ever trust Microsoft with any utilities that are important. In fact, it wasn't until W10 that MoneySoft finally produced an acceptable antivirus. Everything from Windows95, 98, W2000, WinXP, W7 and W8 was trash. Stick with Macrium Reflect.

I would get two separate drives for this job

Understood.

Why two external drives? In case of potential failure of one of them?

Not necessarily in case of Drive failure. However, there may be many reasons why one backup becomes corrupted.

 

It has become, more or less, standard practice to keep 3 copies of your "Stuff".

 

The first is on your Computer.

 

The second is close to hand, should you discover that you have a problem or need to reference an accidentally deleted file.

 

The third is stored somewhere safe where, it will be safe should the building burn or a thief break in.

 

And a beware: Any drive, permanently connected to your computer, is going to be infected, should Ransom Ware strike.

Edited by wee-eddie, 07 December 2023 - 08:57 AM.

Right, of course. I do plan on buying more drives as soon as possible to have multiple backups of files. Right now, I'll only be able to buy an 8TB SSD for both of my internal drives. Definitely going to get another backup drive after when it's possible.

I'll buy the drive I need today and will update on as soon as I can on how the backup process is going. Thanks for everyone's help.