USB to SATA Cable/Converter for HDD swaps?

[Porthos]

(I know, you were speaking generally, not specifically to me about that. ) Fab's is the best thing to come along since sliced bread!

I was referring to @LABFE about Fab's. I don't want give Fabrice any ideas but as often as the people that have it use it its worth that hated word subscription.

 

[LABFE]

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.

Yea, you don't have to convince me that you have to keep billed hours reasonable; I'm just looking for information as I'm pretty new to cloning/imaging. I wasn't challenging you and I hope you didn't read it that way. Reading in the forum I feel one's tone isn't always obvious.

It seems that the consensus though is to take the PC back to shop or home office, image drive, and copy image to new HDD. I'm still trying to figure out though what would be the most suitable software to use in this scenario of a failing HDD? A few here have been helpful to say what they use, but trying to narrow it down to a program or two to purchase/use.

 

[GTP]

When I discovered "Fabs" it was like finding a living Thylacine! (Tasmanian Tiger)
I have great success with ReDo Backup.

 

[LABFE]

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.

I do have FABS, but haven't gotten to use it much. SDI is also great; is it still going away? I need to figure out how to update my copy of it before it's gone.

 

[Porthos]

SDI is also great; is it still going away? I need to figure out how to update my copy of it before it's gone.

At this time it is here too stay. @BadPointer can post additional info.

I wasn't challenging you and I hope you didn't read it that way.

Don't worry, All is good.

 

[Diggs]

When I discovered "Fabs" it was like finding a living Thylacine! (Tasmanian Tiger)
I have great success with ReDo Backup.

How does ReDo handle Win10 drives? With the way Win10 slices and dices the drive I was wondering if any issues?

 

[HFultzjr]

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 bad HDD with new cloned HDD or should the drive work straight away?

*This is on-site work, no shop.

As per your question above, I would NEVER work on a bad HDD on-site.
Take home, ddrescue, then try your imaging, cloning, etc.
At least you won't have to tell the customer, "the clone failed, so did your old drive, now you have no data".
Good drive to good drive, then the options given are good to go. Or, if the customer doesn't care if they end up with a wipe and install.
SAVE THE DATA............................
Just my opinion on how I do things, other may prefer different ways.

 

[BadPointer]

I do have FABS, but haven't gotten to use it much. SDI is also great; is it still going away? I need to figure out how to update my copy of it before it's gone.

SDI won't disappear overnight, so there's no need to be worried about it. Even if all work on it is halted, SDI would continue to work for years to come but without updated driverpacks its usefulness would be diminished.

The project was created by PC technicians and we shared it with the community because it didn't cost us and we were happy to help others. The project grew to become very demanding for project maintainers, especially considering its weekly updates. I wish more people would join the project as contributors, so that each contributor would have fewer responsibilities and wouldn't have to dedicate as much time.

As for me, I plan to eventually leave the project(or take the position of technical consultant) but I can't do that till I transfer all of my responsibilities to other people.

 

[GTP]

How does ReDo handle Win10 drives? With the way Win10 slices and dices the drive I was wondering if any issues?

No problems so far, I usually just grab the partition where the data is, but it will do all. You have to select them individually though.

 

[LABFE]

SDI won't disappear overnight, so there's no need to be worried about it. Even if all work on it is halted, SDI would continue to work for years to come but without updated driverpacks its usefulness would be diminished.

The project was created by PC technicians and we shared it with the community because it didn't cost us and we were happy to help others. The project grew to become very demanding for project maintainers, especially considering its weekly updates. I wish more people would join the project as contributors, so that each contributor would have fewer responsibilities and wouldn't have to dedicate as much time.

As for me, I plan to eventually leave the project(or take the position of technical consultant) but I can't do that till I transfer all of my responsibilities to other people.

Thanks for that information.