Samsung Data Migration: Cloning Failed, An error occurred while reading the disk
Samsung data migration is software that allows users to clone a hard drive or SSD onto a Samsung brand SSD. It’s the easiest way to change if you change, just the hard drive. When I was trying to clone my primary partition, I got a message – Cloning failed, an error occurred while reading the disc. It was surprising because I had cloned it earlier, and it was my second time. So I was sure it had nothing to do with the reader. It took me a while to figure out, so here is how to fix this and clone without any problems.
A bit of history before moving forward
I have a Windows 10 PC, which is now 6-7 years old. The performance of the past few months has started to deteriorate. So I decided to switch to SSD and increase the RAM as the only solution. I was not ready to change the entire configuration as it would have been a waste of what still works.
So I got a Samsung 860 EVO 250 GB, plugged into the computer using a SATA wire from the home computer. This is where I cloned it for the first time, and it worked very well. The next day, I got my new SATA cable, so I changed it on my desktop computer. When I restarted, I started getting Blue Screen of Death. I tried to boot in safe mode, and it always gave me BSOD. Since I had the previous installation intact on my old hard drive, I booted into it, and it worked fine.
I checked for hard drive errors, I ran the Samsung Magician tool to check for SSD errors, but nothing. The first failure occurred after 30 minutes and subsequent attempts resulted in errors within 2-3 minutes. Finally, I decided it was best to clone it again, and that’s when things got weird.
Samsung Data Migration: Cloning Failed, An error occurred while reading the disc
When I checked the error, most of them were an error occurred during write to target Disk. But for me it was disc reading.
- Change the SATA port on the motherboard
- Run Chkdisk
- Check bad sectors on hard drive
I’ll first share what worked for me, followed by some general troubleshooting tips suggested by the data migration tool.
1]Change the SATA port on the motherboard
My computer’s motherboard has four SATA ports. Of which two are eSATA ports, while the other two are marked as SATA. Although I guess something is wrong with my wire, I first chose to change the port. So I connected it to the red port or to the eSATA port, which you see in the image above. Then I restarted the computer, launched the software data migration tool and it worked.
What still bothers me is that SATA is used for an internal device connector while eSATA is used for an external device connector. I guess this is a limitation of the Samsung Data Migration software, which may require that it be on the same type of ports, or it only searches for the 1st and 2nd drives. The target drive should probably be the secondary internal drive connection.
The summary of the Samsung Data Migration tool suggests something similar:
On systems with two (2) or more disks (for example, “C:”, “D:” and “E:” disks) with the operating system installed on disk “C:”, only both first discs will be cloned. The “System” partition created during Windows installation is automatically replicated.
I could be wrong, but the port change worked, and the hard drive and the SSD are on the same type of ports. So it must mean something.
2]Run the Check Disk tool
Check Disk is a built-in tool from Microsoft that can repair disk problems that Windows can fix. To run Check Disk on your system drive (C), using the command line, type the following and press the Enter key.
chkdsk /f C:
If necessary, restart your computer. The Chkdsk command can repair bad sectors if they can be repaired.
3]Check bad sectors on hard drive
Bad sectors are part of hard drives that cannot be used to store data. If you have a bad sector on your hard drive, the migration tool will not clone it. Tools like Hard Disk Validator can help you find and confirm. Download the software from the website and confirm. There are many third-party tools such as Windows Surface Scanner, HD Tune, Macrorit Disk Scanner, EaseUS Partition Master Free, AbelsSoft CheckDrive, HDDScan which provides a better experience.
I hope the message really helped you solve the problem with the Samsung data migration tool, which gives the error – Cloning failed, error occurred while reading disc. The basic thing is to change the ports and see what works for you. Make sure to turn off the computer when you do this. It’s going to be tedious, but cloning is the fastest way to change your hard drive.