Recovering data from a somewhat working drive

[Silas13013]

Alright so my storage drive is taking a slow dive into the ground and I need to get my data off of it.  Unfortunately, I have 1.3TB of data on this drive.  Granted 520 gigs are Steam games, but that still leaves quite a bit that I would like to recover.  The issue arises when I try to do a standard Windows backup and I get an I/O error about 20 minutes in, usually before it's even finished calculating how much data will actually be copied.  Is there any advice that you can give me to help with this issue?  

[SpikeSoprano]

the drive is probably overheating after a certain time when working, why don't you try just copy and paste about  50 gb at a time starting with a cool drive and if that works let the drive cool again and try another 50 gb. Using copy and paste it won't have to calculate what it will have to copy.

[Silas13013]

Would that actually be it?  I'm in the midwest and my window is open to cool my computer so it's not exactly hot.  

[Locutus]

I would do as SpikeSoprano suggested but probably in smaller amounts. I would also suggest you try to get the most important of your data off the drive first, given that it is acting up and could possibly fail at any time.

[ir_cow]

if the S.M.A.R.T report is saying the drive is failing you better start with the files you want the most and work backwards. I would start with 1gb at a time. If you do too much, usually I found it will just freeze up and if you hit the spot that is "bad" it will start to crawl.