USB to SATA Cable/Converter for HDD swaps?

[LABFE]

Can someone recommend a good USB to SATA cable/converter I can purchase? A link would be helpful. I want to be able to use a program like Clonezilla to clone a drive when needing to replace a bad HDD. The idea being that I connect the new HDD to the PC in question with the cable and clone the bad HDD prior to removing it and replacing with the new HDD. Is my thinking correct on this? Are there any other steps necessary when replacing a bad HDD with new cloned HDD or should the drive work straight away?

*This is on-site work, no shop.

 

[Diggs]

Are you talking about one of these?

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+3.0+hdd+dock

 

[LABFE]

Are you talking about one of these?

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+3.0+hdd+dock

It looks like it may be, but I'm not entirely sure. I just know that some techs are able to clone and swap an HDD on-site and I'm trying to prepare to do the same.

 

[glennd]

Probably this:

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-SAT...7&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=alogic+sata+usb+cable

 

[Larry Sabo]

Are there any other steps necessary when replacing bad HDD with new cloned HDD or should the drive work straight away?

Some PCs don't work well with advanced-format drives, and neither will some drive docks. I always struggle and blunder my way through such problems and don't have any guide to offer, unfortunately--just wanted to make you aware of it. Also, modern drives can be huge, so cloning them can take hours. If the patient drive has readability issues, it would be best to use ddrescue, HDDSuperClone or a hardware imager that is designed to work with such unstable drives--all take a very long time and are probably not feasible to use on-site. Cloning drives is best done in-shop, even if it's your kitchen table that's the shop.

PS - I would suggest that the drive dock have it's own power adapter, to ensure it has the juice to power up a 3.5" drive. I've never had much luck with adapters like the one @glennd recommended because the laptop in question just didn't have enough oomph to power the drive I was using as a target. Maybe it was unique to the laptop I tried it with, I don't know.

 

[Diggs]

You need a dock with its own power supply to cover desktop HDDs and as @Larry Sabo said, it can be a long process. This is when you find bad sectors on HDDs (and get that sinking feeling) so it's always best to do on the bench.

Try to never clone with anything less than USB 3.0 or eSATA or it will be an all night project.

 

[glricht]

We've been an on-site business for over 13 years and I would NEVER clone a HD on-site. Primarily because it might (usually?) take hours, but also if you're having to clone a drive, chances are that there are issues with the original drive that can cause problems during the clone process. And if after the clone, what if Windows won't boot? Now you're looking at data recovery and a Windows rebuild too.

Whenever we have to clone a HD, it's always taken back to the shop.

 

[LABFE]

Some PCs don't work well with advanced-format drives, and neither will some drive docks. I always struggle and blunder my way through such problems and don't have any guide to offer, unfortunately--just wanted to make you aware of it. Also, modern drive can be huge, so cloning them can take hours. If the patient drive has readability issues, it would be best to use ddrescue, HDDSuperClone or a hardware imager that is designed to work with such unstable drives--all take a very long time and are probably not feasible to use on-site. Cloning drives is best done in-shop, even if it's your kitchen table that's the shop.

PS - I would suggest that the drive dock have it's own power adapter, to ensure it has the juice to power up a 3.5" drive. I've never had much luck with adapters like the one @glennd recommended because the laptop in question just didn't have enough oomph to power the drive I was using as a target. Maybe it was unique to the laptop I tried it with, I don't know.

Thanks for that insight, that's very helpful to know.

 

[Porthos]

When the source drive is good. I always Image not clone and restore to the new drive.

 

[LABFE]

We've been an on-site business for over 13 years and I would NEVER clone a HD on-site. Primarily because it might (usually?) take hours, but also if you're having to clone a drive, chances are that there are issues with the original drive that can cause problems during the clone process. And if after the clone, what if Windows won't boot? Now you're looking at data recovery and a Windows rebuild too.

Whenever we have to clone a HD, it's always taken back to the shop.

Okay, so it obviously makes more sense to take back to shop/home office to perform cloning. So are you typically using a program like Larry Sabo recommends as opposed to Clonezilla? Perhaps Clonezilla is really only suitable for doing something like a clone for an upgrade to an SSD when the existing HDD doesn't have mechanical/physical issues.

 

[LABFE]

When the source drive is good. I always Image not clone and restore to the new drive.

Okay, that's interesting information. So do you ever perform cloning at all? Cloning is faster right because it's only one transfer as opposed to two. Have you just found that cloning in general is too problematic for it to ever be a good option?

 

[Porthos]

Think about this. Onsite is by the hour as it should be. Unless your rates are super "pizza" low, The client will go ape poop. When they see how long that job takes. Take it home.

 

[glricht]

Okay, so it obviously makes more sense to take back to shop/home office to perform cloning. So are you typically using a program like Larry Sabo recommends as opposed to Clonezilla? Perhaps Clonezilla is really only suitable for doing something like a clone for an upgrade to an SSD when the existing HDD doesn't have mechanical/physical issues.

We've used different programs, but today we generally use Acronis. In early days, we'd do a clone because theoretically it would be faster due to only a single transfer. But we stopped doing a clone as too many ended prematurely due to problems with the original drive. Now we do a backup and then a restore -- always nice to have a backup image available in case of issues down the road.

 

[Porthos]

I had a good month a while back and to follow EULA's I sprang for this. Reg $499 there is a coupon discount in the link below making it $449 I went with this over my favorite Macrium because it is not a subscription.

https://shopper.mycommerce.com/chec...s_coupon=AOME-0PG8-CODE&linkid=BU_coupon-code

 

[acscva]

This device has made life much better for duplicating or making images both inshop and onsite. Amazing that I can clone a drive within minutes with this. Even had success with cloning a known bad hard drive but did take a couple of days.

https://www.startech.com/HDD/Duplicators/sata-hdd-duplicator~SATDUP11IMG

You can buy from distribution or several online sources in the $200 range.

 

[glricht]

As a follow-up: today, whenever we transfer a HD to another HD, either because the original HD's failing or because we're upgrading an HD to a SSD, we ALWAYS do it using the backup/restore method - not by cloning.

After doing a backup of the source HD, and after we know for sure that the backup completed successfully, we'll then do a restore to the target HD/SSD. In addition to having a image copy of the original if needed later, doing a restore allows us to easily change partition sizes (e.g. swapping out a 1TB HD for a 512GB SSD).

 

[Larry Sabo]

we stopped doing a clone as too many ended prematurely due to problems with the original drive.

Yeah, I know what you mean about aborts during cloning because of disk errors (even when you tell Acronis to ignore errors!), but I have had the same result whether cloning or imaging, so I don't understand this part of the argument for imaging vs cloning. Having an image for later reference is handy, but it takes up space so I don't keep it for too long. Imaging is also handy because I can mount the image and run Fab's to create a user data archive for restoration after a fresh install (when required because there are too many errors to justify trying the clone).

 

[Markverhyden]

To expand on the excellent advice above.

Just remember that those USB2SATA bridges to not even come close compared to using the native interface in terms of speed. As an example. Recently I used Clonezilla to image a server drive to a USB drive image. It took over 6 hours to do a 1TB drive that is in working order. As mentioned this should not be done onsite unless there are extenuating circumstances.

I also prefer to make an image and work from that. If you go from drive to drive and have problems you are left trying to repair the destination, etc. If you do this from an image and it fails you can mount the image to work on it without touching the patient/original.

Personally I have several options. And one is similar to what @acscva mentioned. Those dedicated drive duplicator devices are very fast. Startech.com has a number of them.

 

[Porthos]

Imaging is also handy because I can mount the image and run Fab's to create a user data archive for restoration after a fresh install (when required because there are too many errors to justify trying the clone).

If you don't have Fab's get it. Pays for it self real quick.

I try on Win 10 to do a clean install ESPECIALLY if one has never been done before. Restore the Fabs's backup. Drivers with SDI. 10 activates on its own. No darn keys to enter.

 

[Larry Sabo]

@Porthos, I do have Fab's and am running it right now on a Seagate that has issues. (I know, you were speaking generally, not specifically to me about that. ) Fab's is the best thing to come along since sliced bread!