iMac HDD failed.... can I clone it to new HDD?

[Alpha male]

Hi guys,

So my iMac HDD had just been replaced by Apple under the Seagate HDD replacement program, and thankfully, the genius decided to give me back my old internal failed hard drive back to me so I can put it inside an external exclosure to try and extract possible data from it...

However, is it possible for me to clone the old internal (now external) hard drive to my new HDD in the iMac? The old HDD is almost unbootable before I sent it in to Apple, but I was able to extract bits of data off of it using target disk mode.

Or is my only option remains that to try and extract bits of data from it using target disk mode? Or can I clone the entire failed HDD? This is for the sake of convenience, the emails i have saved over the years, and also the large amount of files I have acquired over the years which are quite important...

Thanks!

 

[justperry]

Connect it to the Mac, if it does mount use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the disk, but I would clone it to a disk image instead of to the HD, there is an option in the drop down menu to have the target disk as an image.
This way you prevent damaged files to be copied to the HD which could make your imac unbootable.

But, I think the HD is gone.

People also try to put the HD in a freezer inside a zip bag and then use it, this is the very last thing to do.

BTW CCC up until 3.4.6 is free.

 

[blueroom]

I'll never understand why people don't backup important data? TM, Dropbox, Skydrive... It's so easy.

 

[Alpha male]

Connect it to the Mac, if it does mount use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the disk, but I would clone it to a disk image instead of to the HD, there is an option in the drop down menu to have the target disk as an image.
This way you prevent damaged files to be copied to the HD which could make your imac unbootable.

But, I think the HD is gone.

People also try to put the HD in a freezer inside a zip bag and then use it, this is the very last thing to do.

BTW CCC up until 3.4.6 is free.

Thanks for your advice!

I will try and see if I can clone it into a disk image as soon as possible.

So after cloning to a disk image, how do I check whether there are any damaged files which may make the disk unbootable? And also, after cloning to disk image, do I again clone the disk image to my new internal hardrive using the same software?

I'll never understand why people don't backup important data? TM, Dropbox, Skydrive... It's so easy.

I know! Its just that in my 15+ years using computers, I have never had a hard drive failing on me.... I used my old computer for 6+ years and a white macbook for another 6 without any problems.... and just now this iMac's HDD failed after 3 years of use.... I always assumed HDD failing was a rare thing

 

[justperry]

Thanks for your advice!

I will try and see if I can clone it into a disk image as soon as possible.

So after cloning to a disk image, how do I check whether there are any damaged files which may make the disk unbootable? And also, after cloning to disk image, do I again clone the disk image to my new internal hardrive using the same software?

No, if you can copy it to the image don't clone it to the iMac, I would copy the home folder though but nothing else, just maybe the main Library folder too.