Good idea Pat.
Of course if that external drive has failed, the data being copied over may be corrupted since it's being copied from a failed HDD source.
If this doesn't work, you should consider testing the drive using the instructions here:
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USB drives from Toshiba can be difficult to test, as Toshiba doesn't make their own drives and haven't for 2 decades. They use Fujitsu or Samsung. If none of the links work to test the drive, you can take it into a local repair shop and pay them to test it for. Alternatively, you can remove the drive from it's enclosure and insert it into a Drive Caddy device and test on a desktop PC; the Caddy is less than $20 US available here:
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Of course, if the...