Disk Utility Restore Process Input/Output Error

<Image Edited by Host>
My niece's MBP specs above. If I posted a picture of this poor machine, there'd be a lynch mob of passionate Apple fans arrive at my door wanting a public hanging...It's been dropped no less than a dozen times. (The ethernet port is stretched out of shape so badly that a standard plug will no longer fit the port!!!).
Among other physical injuries, the screen won't present an image (just flickers white lines on black background, hinge has partially detatched, suspect the ribbon that transmits the display signal has been compromised). A visit to the Apple store tells us (by plugging into a cinema display via TB) that the hard drive is still in tact and data is salvageable. Keyboard and trackpad both work fine (surprisingly).
Long story short, she's acquired a new MBA, been read the riot act about looking after it, and I have the unenviable task of salvaging her data, approx 275Gig.
My objective is to obtain:
1. A full copy of the data (existing file structures) - Complete
2. A bootable disk image of the MBP - Incomplete and troublesome
I have at my disposal:
Mid 2011 27' iMac (Intel i7) on Mav
MBPr13 (third host if needed) on Mav
A home ethernet network with enterprise grade switching
A Lacie 5BigPro 10TB NAS
A couple of 1 & 2 TB Toshiba external drives, and
Enough network adapters, USB cables and thunderbolt cables to suffice. Admin priviliges all round. All disk permissions repaired.
Current connection config is the MBP thunderbolted to the iMac. I can use TDM (if I need to interface with the MBP using the iMac display) or can boot in Target Disk Mode if I want to see the MBP disk image on the iMac.
Regarding Objective2: A bootable disk image of the MBP, I first tried to use the Restore function in Disk Utility, but that only works when booting the host in Recovery mode, whcih doesn't support TDM, so I'm flying blind...
Next try, I booted the MBP in Target Disk Mode, which allowed me to use the Restore process from the iMac's Disk Utility, select the MBP HD, and target an external drive (one of the Toshiba's) plugged in to the iMac via USB.
I've now tried this Restore 3 times, each time getting the following I/O error (at about 45 munites in to a projected 4 hour process):
Any thoughts on root cause?
And (given my screen/display limitations) am I missing a far simpler option?
Cheers, Sla

If that were the case you would not get in/out errors. These errors occur because the drive is no longer able to transfer data which is a hardware failure.
If you want to post an image to the forum then you need to open the message editor and click on the Camera icon you will find in the editor's toolbar. Then select the image you wish to post and click on the Insert button.
You can try running the Apple Hardware Test to see if it reveals anything.
Using Apple Hardware Test
Intel-based Macs- Using Apple Hardware Test

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