25.5'' iMac with six 'bad blocks' on int.HD - can I just use cloned external drive only?

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25.5'' iMac with six 'bad blocks' on int.HD - can I just use cloned external drive only?

I have a 25.5'', 3.3, 2TB, 8g RAM iMac and up to six bad block on the internal drive - this number has recently risen from 4. Is this a sign of imminent disk failure and could I clone the HD and then ignore it and start up with, and use the cloned externad disk drive all the time. Repairing an internal drive will not be cheap, I could not do it myself and since the i-Mac is over six years old would it be better to replace it completely? Till it gave up completely I could just ignore the internal drive and do everything from the clone?? Help please?

Thank you.

William

OSX - El Capitain

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8)

Posted on Feb 5, 2016 8:13 AM

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Answer 1

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Duane

Level 10

124,267 points

Feb 5, 2016 10:17 AM in response to moosbach4

You must mean 21.5". There is no 25.5" iMacs.

Yes you can clone the internal to an external and boot from the external. I did that for quite a while with my 2007 iMac when it's internal drive completely failed.

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Answer 2

moosbach4 Author

Level 1

14 points

Feb 6, 2016 4:14 AM in response to Duane

Sorry, you are right , it should have been 21.5".

Thank you for your help.

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Answer 3

moosbach4 Author

Level 1

14 points

Feb 8, 2016 8:33 AM in response to moosbach4

Sadly it was a disaster!

I. It 'hung' after about half of the projects had uploaded and I had to force quit. I then tried to see what had happened to the files that had 'loaded' - they were all listed but everyone was empty and when clicked on nothing happened! None of the iMovie 8 projects or events had been processed.

2. Is there a limit to the number of projects iMovie 10 can handle. They were all OK in 8!

I tried removing the file where the process stopped converting but that made no difference and any way the process stopped in different places so it could not have been a damaged file.

The convert process clearly does not work for me from 8 to 10 so I just do not know where to go from now?

Sorry to bother you again

WIlliam

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Answer 4

moosbach4 Author

Level 1

14 points

Feb 8, 2016 10:26 AM in response to moosbach4

Sorry the above answer went to wrong thread!

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