Windows 10: Defective hard drive - fastest way of copying contents

A 500GB WD Blue drive just failed (unrecognized by BIOS, unrecognized in USB case, clicking, etc) on a friend's laptop, Lenovo Ideapad 110. Fortunately, the owner says that he has any important contents backed up elsewhere. With nothing to loose, I have left the drive in the freezer for a few hours and am going to see if I can get access to it shortly. My plan is to put in into a USB 3 case, plug it into a USB 3 port, and then use Teracopy to copy C:\ to the host computer. Is there a better strategy?

As I said, the owner tells me the contents are unimportant but I suspect he's forgetting stuff like bookmarks, software keys, etc which is why I'd like to get a copy if possible (just to avoid the endless followup queries, if nothing else). Plus I'm curious to see if the freezer trick works on this drive.

:)

 

Replacing old hard drive, need way to copy Windows installation across

Hey Guys,
What would be the best way of copying/imaging the entire contents of an old system drive over to a replacement hard disk for the same machine? I need to copy the Windows installations and all other data to the new drive, and then format the old drive to use as a backup.

Any suggestions? *Smile

 

Copy PC contents to external hard drive

I have installed Windows 10 on my PC. Typically I back up the entire contents of my PC on an external hard drive. I once had a hard drive crash and learned the hard way about the value of complete external backups for a PC.

The procedure I used with Windows 8.1 does not seem to apply to Windows 10. Which item on this list "This PC, Desktop, Documents Downloads, Music Pictures HPLJP1000-1500 (C)" should I select to copy everything (including Windows 10) on my external hard
drive?

 

Fastest hard drive for the price

If you want the fastest conventional hard drive, I would suggest getting the best deal you can for either a WD Caviar Black or Samsung F3.