Harddrive failing, thinking of replacing with an External.

My hard drive started showing clear signs of failure. At first I thought it was due to windows 10 (even though windows 10 is still very buggy), but now I'm sure the slow responsiveness and the drastically decreasing rates of read and write speeds are due to HDD dying. I used a software just to make sure and it gave me a "caution" status indicating it could fail at any time. Read/Write speeds have been 0.5-10 MB/s lately, so that's another obvious indicator.

Anyway I want to backup my files and my whole OS by creating a system image to an external harddrive that would cost much less than an SSD (I don't want to invest in a harddrive anymore, I'm done with the slowness). My laptop supports USB 3.0 so an external HDD that supports 3.0 would work better than an HDD in my case.

So my question is... Can I use the external as my main harddrive? I will keep my failing harddrive in but I just don't want to use it, is that possible to do or should I think of a different plan?

 

Whoa, this is an interesting dilemma, something that I would love to learn more. I took my HP laptop to Office Maxx for fixing, and they told me my hard drive is fried even though my laptop is only two years old in usage. I know I could get more service out of it, so will wait for someone of an expert to answer this.

 

Replace the internal drive!! it's easy to fit , you have some choices.

You could fit a sshd 2.5” hard drive it's a mix of chips and mechanical drive

it's faster than a hdd. And not to expensive.





Download Aomei partition assistant it will do a clone copy, and
will work with ssd , sshd ,hdd drives.

 

Replacing the drive was never an issue, even though my laptop (an HP p027tx) requires that you disassemble EVERYTHING to get to the HDD and ram slots, it's still no problem and I'm willing to put in the time and effort to learn anyhow since I like tinkering with electronics, but I'm just worried a new harddrive will fail me again. These things are fragile compared to SSDs and external harddrives. I don't want to spend money on a drive now just to see it failing a year from now for example. I do a ton of downloading and installing/uninstalling daily so I need something that will last. Optimally I want an SSD but I'm trying to see if I can settle for an external drive for now because the higher capacity will immensely help get me through this period. So is it possible?

 

I think you may come across some unexpected problems using an
external drive that way.


Installing some software like an operating system it may not find the usb drive
fast enough between closure updates.

You will need to alter the bios boot to instruct it to boot from that
usb first.

Why not try the experiment first by using a 2.5” patch cable using your
existing internal drive as an external drive.

They are very cheap from ebay.

 

I see. I guess the only way to be sure is to try. This is where I wish I hadn't thrown any of my old laptops or sold them, I could've used them as test subjects.

What's that "patch cable" thing? How do I look for it online? These keywords don't bring up anything related to harddrives. If I understand correctly, this will make my internal harddrive act as an external?

 

A standard laptop hard drive is a 22 pin 2.5” drive (not apple mac)

You need to search ebay for

USB 2.0 to SATA 7+15 Pin Adapter Cable For 2.5" HDD Hard Disk

If you are going to make the change more permanent then consider

An external hard drive caddy, is quite inexpensive,have a look at ebay
just type in “external 2.5” hard drive caddy”

Sorry for the term patch cable ENGLISH SHORT CUT TERM

 

Oh it's ok, thanks
So once I order that all I have to do is connect it to the HDD's SATA port and connect the other end to the laptop's USB port and then configure the boot order in the bios to start from the USB, is that correct? If it works then I should be safe to use an external for my OS, right?

 

Correct, LET THE FORUMS KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.

 

Will do. The real challenge now is disassembling my laptop and re-assembling it. I use it for college so I may have to wait until the end of the semester (mid december) before I can safely experiment with it.

 

Forget about complicated SATA connectors...
You can buy an External HDD which connects using a Dual USB to micro usb cable direct to the E HDD

typically - an Hitachi 500GB Touro Mobile Portable 2.5" External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - cost £35 in UK

the cable is this one... StarTech.com USB Y Cable for External Hard Drive The last one I bought cost £2

I would recommend you get a Free copy of Macrium Reflect Free Edition from www.Majorgeeks.com
http://www.majorgeeks.com/mg/sortdate/drive_cloning_imaging.html

With Macrium Reflect you'll be able to easily make an accurate and reliable image of your HDD or individual partitions. Read more at: https://tr.im/flTm5.

You can (should) do this as soon as possible - before you current HDD, packs up leaving you with NOTHING...

The replacement HDD shouldn't cost any more (maybe cheaper because it isn't in an external case !)

I would also suggest looking at HOW MUCH SPACE you're using for your College work and get a USB STICK a bit bigger... I bought a 32 Gb stick recently for less than £20... -

In fact ALL my important 'go anywhere' docs are on THAT Stick... with a similar stick as a duplicate, safely stored at home.

hope this is helpful

 

Sorry, that made me laugh because SATA connectors are anything but complicated.

 

Ok I actually bought an external before I tried taking out my HDD. I found a good deal that I couldn't pass (it was 50% off). I cloned my internal HDD into it using Macrium Reflect and booted from USB. I get the Windows logo but then I end up with this screen after a few seconds.

In case you can't read it. It says "INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE". Did something go wrong with the cloning? Can someone help?

 

It's a windows installation failure.

Be sure to alter the bios to boot from external drive first and save it.

So if you are still trying to run from an external drive then it's
a success.

Try to clone the drive again this time using AOMEI BACKUPPER.

This way you won't need to make a usb image.

 

I already set the boot order to USB device first in the bios.
I will try that other software then. I just want to make sure I'm doing this correctly though. All I need to do is clone, then boot from USB right?

 

Yes to the hard drive on the usb port.

You are so close to having it working

Note that sometimes the bios is very very fast, and may not be finding
the usb, before finding the internal hard drive first.

This is "NOT" the case given you have the failure screen.

 

If you want to replace the internal drive, which I really think you should, today is the day to do it. Amazon has had several SSD's at almost 50% off today. There are some really good deals out there if you have a chance to go looking for them. I'm a little backed up but I'm hoping to concentrate on the Cyber Monday PC/Laptop deals later today.

 

SSDs are still out of my budget. I'd buy a small SSD if I had the money, but I'm not sure my laptop has space for two internal drives in the first place. I'll have to see for myself when I take it apart.

 

I'm using the USB 3.0 port (which the external supports), did that contribute to the bios detecting it quickly enough or is it irrelevant?

I'm cloning it again with AOMEI Backupper as I'm writing this, 5 hours to go. This software is extremely simple and user friendly though. Macrium was a little more confusing to use. Anyway I'll update after the cloning and after trying to boot from USB again.

Edit: ok the time estimation was horribly off. It took 9 hours. Anyway it gave me the exact same error again. Is my external drive just weird? I think it's maybe somehow designed not to be used as a boot device. I heard that some manufacturers build their external drives differently by including the microcontroller inside the chip instead of making it detachable, rendering the drive inside the enclosure useless for use as internal drives without their cases. But I don't know much about that it's just what I read online.

Should I call this a failure or are there any other options to explore to make this work?

 

Ok I don't know why I haven't tried this before, but I did now: I plugged the external into my PC and booted from it... and I managed to log into windows 10 and access my laptop files! My PC still has windows 7. Did that play a role in some way or another? Also my PC only has USB 2.0 ports so it was loading a little slower than I expected. Still faster than my current failing HDD in the laptop though.

I don't get why it doesn't want to work on the laptop though. Any ideas are appreciated.