Important: Do not attempt any 'do-it-yourself' repairs if the disk makes unusual noises!

DiskPatch creates a true sector-by-sector copy of the original hard disk on a second hard disk, bypassing errors in file system structures and at the same time including disk and file system structures: a clone is made on the disk level, so DiskPatch does not care what's on the disk (partitions, file systems etc.) and includes all intact and corrupt disk and file system structures. It is a true 1 on 1 copy from the start till the end of the disk. For a professional data recovery engineer cloning the disk is the first and most vital step in the data recovery process: if you want to create an extra safety net before applying any repairs on a logically corrupt disk, you clone it first!

A second reason for cloning a disk is the presence of bad sectors (sectors that can not be read) on the original disk. Bad sectors (if they occur in a partition table area) may prevent disk patching (performing in-place repairs). Also, many file recovery tools will stall and give up when encountering bad sectors, effectively preventing file recovery. As DiskPatch handles bad sectors very well during the cloning process, files can be recovered from the clone using your favorite file recovery software.

The cloning process can also be regarded as the first step in diagnosing a disk / data loss issue as it will provide you with feedback regarding the physical state of the disk: if data was lost and a lot of read errors occur then it is very likely that the read errors are the root of the problem.