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I recently use the app CrystalDiskInfo which is a SSD/HDD utility to check on my hardware's health.

I noticed that I had something bad which was caused by "Reallocated Sectors Count" - I misread the information and thought this was on the SSD I had. But in fact , it was on the original HD ( which was installed about 8 or 9 years ago ) and had learned online that the best option is to simply replace it. It is a ST31000528AS - Seagate Barracuda HDD. So I was heading in the wrong direction and - entirely my fault - gave wrong info to the repair guy : I went to a computer repair shop, and I asked the guy to replace the old SSD with a new SSD of 1 (one) Terraoctet. Then I asked him to copy the old data onto the new one.

When I went to pick my PC tower with the new SSD in it, I asked him to return the old SSD. He told me he left it in, as 'secondary disk' or something like that - not sure of the term.

Running the SSD utility app, I see I still have the Reallocated Sectors Count problem on the original HDD, and it looks to me that the previous drives ( W:/ M:/ S:/ X:/) with all my data are on the same disk.

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Here is a screenshot below of the Windows disk manager app which shows how drives are placed.

Is it possible to safely move all the data from the ST31000528AS - Seagate Barracuda disk, onto the new SSD ? Which actions should be taken to do that , partitioning, merging spaces, etc. ?

Or should I be getting / do I have to get a new internal HDD ?

Or am I wrong, and can ignore the Reallocated Sectors Count message ?

Any advices / help would be much appreciated for a noob like me.

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Here is a screenshot of the device manager which shows the disks:

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Is it possible to safely move all the data from the ST31000528AS - Seagate Barracuda disk, onto the new SSD ?

Your disk is about to die. Any access to your degrading drive bears a risk. If you don't mind loosing data you simply copy the content file-wise from the rotating drive to the SSD. That may uncover new errors which will later show up as "pending sectors" in your SMART report.

A smarter way is to duplicate the drive using ddrescue. As it tries to read out the drive in a linear fashion it minimizes stress. After having duplicated the failing drive you could simply copy file-wise to your SSD.

If you want to be even more careful you would duplicate the duplicate and check the 2nd copy with chkdsk on Windows operating systems.

Which actions should be taken to do that , partitioning, > merging spaces, etc. ?

None of them.

Or should I be getting / do I have to get a new internal HDD ?

Yes.

Or am I wrong, and can ignore the Reallocated Sectors Count message ?

No.

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  • Thanks for your straight clear answers. After reading that my HDD was about to die, I copied most of the important files - the reading / writing process was unstable, crashed / froze a few times. After that, I deleted most partitions, clean install of Windows 10 on the SSD drive. My old Seagate HDD was, and still in the PC and plugged. I'd rather take it out completely - have to figure that out - but then I have to plug the SSD to the motherboard I guess. Do you know if i'm heading in the right directions,maybe have the steps to follow in the right order? Will I have to install the OS again?
    – mlclm
    Commented Oct 27, 2020 at 14:07
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    After recovery of your data you can remove your HDD from the computer and simply destroy your broken HDD depending on the degree of secrecy needed. If your machine does not boot after the removal of your HDD, check and adjust the boot order in the BIOS.
    – r2d3
    Commented Oct 28, 2020 at 10:01
  • @rd2d3 Ok Thanks a lot.
    – mlclm
    Commented Oct 30, 2020 at 11:10
  • :) ...................
    – r2d3
    Commented Oct 31, 2020 at 12:05

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