Anyone successfully cloned the NTG2.5 Hard Dirve?

[wongl]

I would like to clone the 40GB hard drive from W169 NTG2.5 so that I can use a 40GB SSD drive.

Before rushing out to buy a 40GB SSD drive (which exists but quite hard to find), I have tried cloning the existing 40GB hard drive from NTG2.5 onto another 40GB drive using various cloning software including Linux cloning software that clones the drive sector by sector - all without success.

I have Googled this topic and found a couple of articles from people claiming to have successfully cloned the NTG2.5 drive, but no details were given except that the cloning must be done using a 40GB recipient drive.

Could there be a difference between the old firmware and the new firmware whereby the new firmware has incorporated some security feature to prevent a cloned drive from being recognised on boot-up?

Would like to hear from fellow members who have tried successfully or unsuccessfully to clone the drive before I experience a drive failure.

Thanks

 

[Ted]

Have you tried 'dd' under linux.
This will clone anything.

dd if=/dev/hdx of=/dev/hdy
Where x is the source drive and y is the destination drive.

Speed it up by adding something like bs=409600 at the end of the command.

 

[richard]

Just as a note, the hard drive in the NTG2.5 is a special Automotive part. This basically means it (a) runs slower (i.e cooler) (b) has more anti-bump protection (damping etc).

I have looked up the part number from the drive and yes it really is a special automotive part and I have not found a source to buy them, which is a shame.

Richard

 

[TomJones]

SSD hard drives have no moving parts, they run a lot cooler than any HDD and shock protection its absolutely much better.

 

[richard]

SSD hard drives have no moving parts, they run a lot cooler than any HDD and shock protection its absolutely much better.

Agree completely. Almost all my PC/laptop/etc have SSD in now.

Did anyone find a SSD, or one that you can persuade to report same geometry as the factory drive ?

R

 

[wongl]

Yes, I tried dd, and various versions of dd that supposedly even copies 'faulty' track so that it completely image a failing drive! I can see all the partition and contents, but when mounted to the NTG2.5 it boots only to report that the maps are missing. I even tried reinstalling the maps from the original DVD but it reports that the HD is missing.

I have done this about twenty times each time with a clone application (experimenting with the various settings) before moving onto a different clone application, all onto a 40GB (non-SSD) drive. I even use an erase application to wipe the drive before each clone to make that nothing is left over from the previous attempt.

Any more suggestions to try?

 

[Ted]

that's strange dd on the whole disk should work. It will copy all boot partitions and data partitions - did you do it on (say) /dev/sda and not /dev/sda1? As this will be a mountable partition. I have used this in the past to copy tapes that are a totally different operating system and structure to the 'host' o/s - I also use it to create vms from physical machines without issue. Edit: if you have 40Gb space on your host system, you can dd to a file, which you can then create as many clones as you like.

Edit - if you have 40Gb spare on your host system you can dd to a file on that, and make as many clones as you want

 

[whitenemesis]

I think I read somewhere that systems originally designed without considering ssd need to have some form of emulation software. In effect the system is expecting to see a conventional HD and this fools it into accepting the ssd.

It could also be the HD is coded to the system? Is there anything in Xentry/STAR to facilitate HD replacement?

 

[wongl]

that's strange dd on the whole disk should work. It will copy all boot partitions and data partitions - did you do it on (say) /dev/sda and not /dev/sda1? As this will be a mountable partition. I have used this in the past to copy tapes that are a totally different operating system and structure to the 'host' o/s - I also use it to create vms from physical machines without issue. Edit: if you have 40Gb space on your host system, you can dd to a file, which you can then create as many clones as you like.

Edit - if you have 40Gb spare on your host system you can dd to a file on that, and make as many clones as you want

Interesting comment about sda and sda1 as I was using a laptop to clone the hard disk mounted via a SATA to USB adapter so was mounted as sda1 since sda was the internal hard drive of the laptop.

I will have to investigate to see how I can mount the NTG2.5 hd as sda and not sda1 - but need to be careful that I don't accidentally trash the source drive!

 

[wongl]

I think I read somewhere that systems originally designed without considering ssd need to have some form of emulation software. In effect the system is expecting to see a conventional HD and this fools it into accepting the ssd.

It could also be the HD is coded to the system? Is there anything in Xentry/STAR to facilitate HD replacement?

I am experimenting with the clone using a conventional 40GB and not a SSD drive as I only plan on sourcing a 40gb SSD once I have confirmed/perfected cloning the drive to eliminate any SSD compatibility issues.

I cannot see very much to do with the hard drive on Xentry, however in the engineering menus on the NTG2.5 there is a PIN entry for the HD that no body seems to know very much about. It could be that the drive is coded to the Windows CE system, but even if this was the case, there are reports on Google that some people have successfully cloned the NTG2.5 HD a while back.

 

[whitenemesis]

IIRC early COMAND units weren't coded, that only came in later as a security measure ?

 

[Ted]

It will be seen as sdb not sda1.
Simple way to check is to ls /dev without the drive attached and then with the drive attached the difference will be the new drive as a wholedisk eg sdb, and the partitions eg sdb1 sdb2 etc.

If you want to be clever...
Without the drive connected

ls /dev >/tmp/x

Then with the drive connected

ls /dev >/tmp/y

diff /tmp/x /tmp/y

Will show the new device.

May then be safest and easiest to then take a copy of the whole disk if you have enough space using dd.