Dealing with hard disk problem

My hard disk is having some problems now. I have been advised to back up my data, format the hard drive, then restore the data. But I'm not sure if formatting can make any difference. Since the restored data is the same as the original data sector by sector, I figure that the formatting might be lost anyway. Any ideas on how this is going to work out?

If I have to replace the hard disk of my PC, will there be any potential problem if I create an image onto a removable hard drive, then restore it onto the new one in the PC? I mean, the new hard disk is probably going to be different from the old one (size, model, driver, etc.). My PC accomodates only one hard disk that I can boot from so I need to be sure there won't be any conflicts or failure.

Finally, does frequent (more than once per week) full restoration damage the hard disk in any significant way over the long run (say, a year)? I'm a little concerned about the way the hard disk was wiped clean in a second and data completely rewritten on it so often. Thanks for helping out!

 

Hello Giles,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please accept my apologies for the delay with the response.

Please be aware that when Acronis True Image (any edition) creates an image archive of a partition or a disk that has bad sectors (marked in the file system, e.g. using ScanDisk or chkdsk), it records the information regarding the bad sectors as well. So, if one restores the image archive, he/she will get these bad sectors on the new location. The sectors will not be actually bad, but they will be marked as bad in the file system (because it has been restored without any changes).

In order to avoid transferring bad sectors to the new location, one should restore the image archive resizing the partition(s). Considering that it is impossible to resize partitions when restoring an image of a whole hard disk, there is no way to avoid restoring bad sectors in such a case. It is only possible to eliminate the bad sectors by restoring the partitions separately with resizing.

One more thing to mention is that you should check each partition of your hard drive by Windows utility prior to creating an image, so the errors found on your hard drive will be marked. In other case Acronis True Image 8.0 will most likely be unable to create an image of your hard drive.

Please also note that a frequent restore of the image will not cause any harm to your hard drive. At any case, no bigger harm then any other read\write operations.

If you have any further questions please feel free to ask.

Thank you.
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Alexey Popov