Yes — you can zip everything, but only after you safely copy/recover the data off the possibly‑failing D: drive. Since you already have an elevated PowerShell window open, here are safe, exact commands and short explanations so you can do it now.
Step 0 — check free space (important)
- We must make sure the destination (C: or another drive) has enough free space for the copied data. Run this and paste the results if you want me to confirm:
Get-PSDrive -PSProvider FileSystem | Format-Table Name, @{Label='Free(GB)';Expression={[math]::Round($.Free/1GB,2)}}, @{Label='Used(GB)';Expression={[math]::Round(($.Used)/1GB,2)}} -AutoSize
Step 1 — create a destination folder on a healthy drive
- If C: has space, create a folder to receive recovered files:
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path "C:\RecoveredBackup" -Force
(If you want to use another external drive, replace C: with that drive letter, e.g. E:\RecoveredBackup.)
Step 2 — copy everything from D: to the healthy destination with Robocopy (robust, skips unreadable files)
- Run (adjust destination if not C
:
robocopy "D:\" "C:\RecoveredBackup" /E /R:2 /W:2 /FFT /V /MT:8
- What this does:
- /E copies all subfolders (including empty ones).
- /R:2 retries 2 times on read errors.
- /W:2 waits 2 seconds between retries.
- /MT:8 uses multi-threading (faster).
- Robocopy will continue past unreadable files and produce a summary at the end — note any “Files :” / “Failed :” counts.
Important: If Robocopy shows many read errors or stalls, stop and tell me — we’ll switch to a read‑only recovery tool.
Step 3 — confirm copied files (spot check)
- Open a few copied photos/documents from C:\RecoveredBackup and confirm they open properly. If they do, good — you’re ready to archive.
Step 4 — create a ZIP from the healthy copy
Option A — built‑in PowerShell Compress‑Archive (simple, no install):
Compress-Archive -Path "C:\RecoveredBackup*" -DestinationPath "C:\RecoveredBackup\DriveBackup.zip" -CompressionLevel Fastest
- Notes: Fastest is quickest and less CPU-intensive. This writes to the healthy drive only (not D.
Option B — recommended for large collections: 7‑Zip (better handling and supports splitting)
- If you want to split the archive into parts (safer if a single huge file worries you), install 7‑Zip and then run:
& "C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" a -tzip -mx1 -mmt=on -v2g "C:\RecoveredBackup\DriveBackup.zip" "C:\RecoveredBackup*"
- Explanation: -mx1 = low compression (faster), -v2g = split into 2 GB parts.
Step 5 — verify the archive
- For Compress‑Archive, extract a few files to a temp folder to verify.
- For 7‑Zip, test the archive:
& "C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe" t "C:\RecoveredBackup\DriveBackup.zip.001"
Step 6 — keep originals until you’re certain
- Don’t delete the C:\RecoveredBackup originals until you’ve verified the ZIP(s) and maybe copied them to another safe location (cloud or second external drive).
If destination (C
does NOT have enough space
- Use another external drive (E:, F:, etc.) as the destination in the Robocopy and Compress commands above — e.g. robocopy "D:\" "E:\RecoveredBackup" /E ...
If Robocopy fails or you can’t see files
- Stop. We’ll try read‑only recovery tools (Recuva or PhotoRec) and recover directly to another drive. I can walk you through either tool step‑by‑step.
Would you like me to:
- A) Paste the exact Robocopy + Compress commands ready to run for your machine now (confirm destination letter), or
- B) Walk you through Recuva / PhotoRec if the copy fails, or
- C) Help install 7‑Zip and use it to make split archives?
Also, paste the output of Get-PSDrive (from Step 0) if you want me to confirm available space before we start.
