HarryB,

Welcome to Justlinux!


For a Xp the necessary condition is to remove the source when booting up the clone in exactly the same position.

If the source has bad sectors then the bad sectors cannot be read and so the cloned disk can have holes or blank spots in eexactly the same locations as the source. Technically the clone should have no choice but to behave exactly as the source.

Thus my guess is you can clone your Xp but the source is probably doing the same thing. Cloning doesn't get rid of the bad sectors. What you do get is in the clone is that it is healthy and all sectors can be read and written whereas a bad disk will continue to decline until it is unreadable.

Once a disk develops bad sectors the condition can deteriorate very quickly. Thus it pays to limit its spinning time and have it clone ASAP.