How to Do with "SMART Status Bad, Backup and Replace" | Guide
Overview for S.M.A.R.T Status BAD error
The S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) is a firmware that resides into most modern hard disks (HDD) and solid-state drives (SSD), which can continuously keep track of disk condition and give you a warning if there is any issue or potential issues.
In most of the cases, if the SMART fails, the hard drive will not last very long before the data on it fail completely. More specifically:
- If your computer fails to boot and give you the message "Pri Master Hard Disk: S.M.A.R.T. Status BAD, Backup and Replace Press F1 to Resume", then the primary hard drive (boot disk) is failing or have failed already.
- If you have more than one hard drive installed in your computer, you may get the "Sec Master Hard Disk: S.M.A.R.T. Status Bad", which means the data disk is having problems.
When you encounter such situations, as the message "SMART status bad backup and replace" suggests, you need to back up the valuable data immediately, and consider a replacement for the hard drive.
Backup failing hard drive before replacing it
If the error refers to the secondary hard drive, then you can use a backup utility (built-in or 3rd party) to backup the drive that is failing. If the primary drive smart status is failing, then you cannot load Windows successfully. Therefore, you need to use a bootable media to boot the computer and get the hard drive backed up. Luckily, the freeware Qiling Disk Master Standard is capable of backing hard drive within or without Windows loaded.
With it, you can easily backup Pri or Sec master disk with smart status bad problem, and create a bootable media with a USB flash drive or writable DVD if needed. This bootable media can be used on any computer with Windows installed, and allow you to perform backup & restore in WinPE.
Download and run Qiling Disk Master to have a try:
How to back up hard drive when smart status bad error arises
There is no certainty about how long will the hard drive completely fail after you got the SMART status bad error, so backup the data as soon as you can. Here's how you can do it:
1. Launch the software, choose Backup tab and you will be given several options: Disk Backup, Partition Backup, System Backup and File Backup. If you want to back up everything on the hard drive, then choose Disk Backup.
2. At the next screen, click Disks to choose the hard drive with S.M.A.R.T Status BAD error as the backup source, and then choose the target path to receive the backup image.
Available storages include internal/external drive, NAS, share folder, USB flash drive, cloud, etc.
3. Click Proceed to run the backup. By default, the program will omit the bad sectors so they won't be included in your backup image.
✎More options to use in daily data protection:
Schedule Backup: Create automated backup task that runs daily, weekly, monthly, etc.
Backup Scheme: Choose backup method (full/incremental/differential) for scheduled backup, or enable automatic backup (available in Professional edition) to remove older backup images and save storage space.
What if your primary drive failed to boot with smart status bad message
If the message occurs on your primary boot disk, and you already failed to boot into Windows, then the solution may be a little different.
1. You can install Qiling Disk Master on any other working computer with Windows installed, and go to Tools -> Create Bootable Media.
2. Follow the wizard to create a Windows PE disc, and choose your target storage media accordingly.
3. After the creation is done, you can then connect the bootable media to the PC that contains the failing hard drive. Start the PC and enter BIOS via the specific key (depends on computer make and model) to set the media as the first boot option.
Then, Qiling Disk Master will launch automatically in WinPE, and you can choose the backup option as you like.
How to restore the data to new hard drive
When you actually replace the failing hard drive with a new one, then next thing to consider is how to restore the old data to it. There are also 2 scenarios:
1. If you have installed Windows on the new drive: Then the remain task is rather simple. Just install Qiling Disk Master on it, choose Restore -> Select Task / Select Image File to locate the backup image and follow the wizard to perform the disk or data recovery accordingly.
2. If your new drive has no system installed: Then you can perform a disk restore or system restore via the created bootable media as well. Boot your computer into WinPE via the media, can then select your backup image in the pop-up Qiling Disk Master interface. The remain steps are all the same.
Conclusion
If you receive the SMART Status BAD error on your hard drive, it indicates that the drive is about to failing (or have failed). To avoid possible future inconvenience, you need to backup the hard drive before replacing it, and Qiling Disk Master is just the best tool to help you do so.
Whether the problematic one is your primary boot disk or secondary data disk, Qiling Disk Master can help you backup the hard drive even without booting Winodws. If you upgrade to Profesional edition, you can also use the "Universal Restore" function for dissimilar hardware restore.
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