Copying from bad hd

[putz]

have you tried this program yet? I dont know that it can copy by file sizes but you can specify file extensions. You can have it skip damaged files or copy undamaged files first.
Unstoppable Copier

Roadkil.Net - Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier Program Download

www.roadkil.net

 

[Joep]

have you tried this program yet? I dont know that it can copy by file sizes but you can specify file extensions. You can have it skip damaged files or copy undamaged files first.
Unstoppable Copier

Roadkil.Net - Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier Program Download

www.roadkil.net

Problem with that tool is, that all access to drive is handled by Windows, which is what you need to avoid when dealing with an 'unstable' drive. It's at least as stressful to the drive as trying to copy the files without the help of an additional utility such as unstoppable copier.

 

[britechguy]

Problem with that tool is, that all access to drive is handled by Windows, which is what you need to avoid when dealing with an 'unstable' drive.

Yep.

Hence the reason many here (including yourself, I believe) have recommended cloning. There are a number of utilities for this that bypass Windows entirely and to not even look at the file system, but do sector by sector copying for any sector that can be read (or partially read, which is often a choice one can make). It's been a while since I did my last "cloning utility" research, but I recall ones that could be told to skip "soft" bad sectors or to clone those over anyway.

It's a much less stressful way to get stuff off of a failing drive and onto a stable one for whatever recovery might be possible. And that's only if the data is not "truly precious" and whoever owns it knows that there is the possibility of catastrophic failure during a clone. If that's too high a risk, then it's ship the thing off to a data recovery provider.