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Hello! Unfortunately my current hard drive is beginning to fail (I hear clicking) and I want to backup my files and put my files on another internal HD. I've been looking into Snapshot to backing up my files on an external HD. I want to know what is the correct procedure to restoring the files from my external HD to my newly installed internal HD. Any tips?

I couldn't get it to backup qith snapshot...was going to work on it a bit later.

For your documents and stuff, just copy them to the new drive, folders and all. I assume you can backup the whole system, but if you're planning a new fresh install, backing up your files should do it.

I backup my files and if it ever goes kablooie I just reinstall. I hate doing all the tweaks, but I make notes that get backed up and I can just follow those and be done in about an hour.I do want to do a whole system backup though. It would be nice to just slap it back on there and go.

scarper wrote:Hello! Unfortunately my current hard drive is beginning to fail (I hear clicking) ...

I would try to run GSmartControl which is also packaged for Mageia but after a full backup. There is a small theoretical possibility that firmware upgrade on that HD would help.

scarper wrote: ...and I want to backup my files and put my files on another internal HD. I've been looking into Snapshot to backing up my files on an external HD. I want to know what is the correct procedure to restoring the files from my external HD to my newly installed internal HD. Any tips?

There are some threads about rsnapshot backup. You might even try to copy whole HD with dd to another HD. Than you can safely check integrity of the files.

In the case of a failing drive, `dd` is really the safest solution since it will do a bit by bit copy from the original drive. filip is right on in recommending it. ESPECIALLY if it is doing clicking stuff. `dd`, because it is a linear raw copy will work when most other methods fail. I would consider booting up on a live disc or a usb drive and simpy dd'ing the old drive onto the new drive. IF you dd the whole drive, the new drive will need to be the same size as the old one, but you should end up with an exact clone of the old drive. If you dd partitions individually, the new drive will need to be large enough to accomodate the partitions on the old drive, of course. WHATEVER you do, don't try to write anything to the failing drive itself since doing so will likely only make matters worse. dd your data to another drive and THEN do an fsck on it (NOT ON THE ORIGINAL DRIVE!!!) to attempt to get everything fixed. If that fails you can always try to dd another copy as long as you don't mess with the original drive. Once you completely mess up the original drive, its all over.

http://www.debianadmin.com/recover-data-from-a-dead-hard-drive-using-dd.html

http://www.debianadmin.com/recover-data-from-a-dead-hard-drive-using-ddrescue.html

http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2010/10/dd-command-examples/

ghmitch wrote:In the case of a failing drive, `dd` is really the safest solution since it will do a bit by bit copy from the original drive.

Well, not in particular dd but dd_rescue or ddrescue, which will continue even if it hits bad blocks. (you also linked to one of those, just wanted to emphasize the difference between pure dd and dd_rescue

Also best practice is to mount the source read-only to prevent any further damage due to writes.

For sure mounting ro is extremely important to preserve what you have. The link outlining the use of dd in this case explains the applicable dd option that ensures copying will continue in spite of any errors encountered. But, of course, ddrescue does that automatically. This is a bit personal for me because at one time I was fiddling with a failing hard drive and things were just getting more and more hopeless with multiple attempts to fsck the drive. And then, when I reached out for help, I was told to stop fiddling with the drive, mount it ro and dd it to a known good drive. In my case I had an identical drive so I dd'ed the whole thing and THEN did an fsck on the good drive. The fsck ran uneventfully, fixed all the problems and everything was there like new. So I KNOW it can work like magic whereas dorking with a failing drive can result in losing everything. I takes some effort to do it this way, but it is worth it all in the end.

Haha I ended up doing what yankee said and copying my home folder to my external drive a few hours after I posted this since I thought the thread was getting buried. The reason I asked the question related to snapshot was mainly for the reason of ease of restoration rather than ease of backing up in which I know the hardship all too well unfortunately. I do appreciate everyone's feedback in the event my hard drive does fail.

That being said, when I described that my hard drive was clicking it's not the click that you hear at a stable and constant interval. To more accurately describe the clicking it happens once or twice a day but I can go on for days without hearing it, and when I do hear it the clicks are 15-20 seconds apart. It seems very odd to me.

I went ahead and ran GSmartControl and ran both the Short and Extended tests; both tests completed without error. The Extended test shows lifetime hours of 5750 while the Short test shows 5747, does the number of hours signify how old the hard drive is or how many hours it has left? (I assume the latter) Needless to say I will take these results with a grain of salt.

Again thanks guys for all this advice and resources! I really am grateful! I will definitely familiarise myself with dd and ddrescue. One more question though: is dd_rescue and ddrescue the same? I see two different packages in MCC but they look like they have the same function.

scarper wrote:The Extended test shows lifetime hours of 5750 while the Short test shows 5747, does the number of hours signify how old the hard drive is or how many hours it has left?

This number is "cumulative on hours". It doesn't say much. At least to my knowledge.

Did you search for firmware upgrade on that HD? Sometimes it helps.

filip wrote:

scarper wrote:Did you search for firmware upgrade on that HD? Sometimes it helps.

It looks like it came out March of last year so I'm up to date.