Warning: Linux NEWBIE

I am attempting to clone my damaged external HDD (USB 2.0) to a new identical exernal HDD (USB 2.0) - both are 250Gb Maxtor ATA/133 7200RPM.

I started Knoppix CD Live in my laptop (Thinkpad P4M 2 Ghz). I switched to an X-Windows session and from the root@tty1[/]$ prompt I used the following command:

dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sdc conv=noerror,sync bs=8k

The transfer rate was approximately 1.4Gb/Hr (The actual listed transfer rate was 368k/s). That is about 7.5 days to clone a 250Gb HDD. Can that be right??

I did have a number of I/O error messages listed as the transfer moved throught the HDD. At 5.2Gb transfered I closed the session.

I see from several posts and the http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.ph...veUsingKnoppix article that the basic:

dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sdc

command is recommended. Am I making a mistake by adding conv=noerror,sync bs=8k to the command? Should I increase the bs rate?

Sorry for such a stupid question. Any help will be MUCH appreciated!

Ken

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Details:
Disk Information (Damaged HDD):
Manufacturer: Maxtor One Touch USB 2.0 / Firewire (External) HDD
Details: Size: 250Gb / Label: Maxtor / Filesystem: NTFS

Computer Information:
IBM Thinkpad R40 - Intel P4 2.4Ghz / 1Gb RAM / 40Gb HDD

Recovery Disk:
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 - ATA/133 16MB buffer - USB 2.0
Details: Size: 250Gb / Label: DiaMax / Fi