emusonacid!

What's the best way to clone a 20GB IDE HD?
I have a 20GB HD full of samples and I want to duplicate it's data to another 30GB HD, what's the easiest way to do so?


Tried connecting both samplers via SCSI, but unfortunately they can't see each other's internal IDE HD's.

Tried taking both HD's out and connecting them to my computer (1'st set to master and 2'nd slave) , then saving the 20GB(master) on the computer as disc image, but at the last stage of restoring the image to the 30GB(slave) it failed and gave me an error. I have a Mac and PC here, is there anything else i can do?

Hard problem to solve - haven't tried this myself.

Is this EOS or FAT32.

If its FAT32 file copies may work (again not test) as a file based backup from source to target.

If its EOS then the target image would need to be the same partition size etc- but the format is proprietary, so its not clear how tools might manage this or even adjust the size.

http://partitionlogic.org.uk/ may be a tool to explore this but only do it on a backup of the original drive.....wait a sec.....infinite loop ;-)
M

The easiest way would be to get an external scsi hdd and connect it to the first sampler, format it in fat32 and then backup the files to it. Connect it to the second sampler and backup the files from the external drive to the internal one. Job done! Also, you can then connect the external drive to your pc (via a pci scsi card) and copy your data onto your pc for safe storage.

Actually, this raises an interesting question... would the Ultra's internal IDE bus support daisy-chained drives in a master-slave configuration?

Obviously, it wouldn't necessarily work in terms of power connections or trying to mount two drives inside the case. But if the Ultra could see (as an example) the slave 20G through the master 30G, then even in EOS formatted drives it should be able to backup one drive to the other.

Is this technically feasible? Could some of our more adept tinkerers chime in?

I'm picturing a scenario involving placing the two samplers (you did mention two, and did mention "each other's internal IDE"), with the covers removed, facing in opposite directions so that their internal drives are situated next to each other. Disconnecting the 20G drive's control cable but keeping the power plugged in, and using a PC two disk IDE control cable to connect both drives to the IDE bus in the 30G drive machine. After both machines boot up, the 30G machine would hopefully see both drives, letting you copy from one to the other inside the EOS. I don't know if this would actually work, and I don't have two IDE drives or a two-drive controller cable lying around to test the idea.

kalide wrote:Hard problem to solve - haven't tried this myself.

Is this EOS or FAT32.

If its FAT32 file copies may work (again not test) as a file based backup from source to target.

If its EOS then the target image would need to be the same partition size etc- but the format is proprietary, so its not clear how tools might manage this or even adjust the size.

http://partitionlogic.org.uk/ may be a tool to explore this but only do it on a backup of the original drive.....wait a sec.....infinite loop ;-)
M

It's in EOS format.

I've tried partitionlogic but it pulled a linux failboat on me, said something in the lines of "failed creating new usb device" at boot time and left Restart as the only option.

stu wrote:The easiest way would be to get an external scsi hdd and connect it to the first sampler, format it in fat32 and then backup the files to it. Connect it to the second sampler and backup the files from the external drive to the internal one. Job done! Also, you can then connect the external drive to your pc (via a pci scsi card) and copy your data onto your pc for safe storage.

Unfortunately i don't have any access to any SCSI drives at the moment, i really hope there's another way to sort this out without resorting to ebaying for SCSI drives.

@ vermis_rex

This is really interesting what you're saying, but i'm afraid i can't take the risk and put the samplers in danger of frying everything up with fire, because one of the sampler's isn't mine and the other one is mine.

Even if you don't want to bother getting a scsi drive now, it really is the most sensible way to solve your current problem, especially as it will also allow you to backup your banks. I cannot stress how important this is - there are several posts (including one made today) by people whose internal ide drives have gone south and who didn't have any backup system in place...

Emu's IDE port is Master only.

However, I've never tried it....but from the documentation it all says only supports IDE drives on the Master.

Ok so before finally getting my drive unreadable by EMU i tried lots of amazing software that includes: Clonezilla, Gparted, PartLogic, Acronis True Image, Symantec Ghost, ODIN, Savepart, and Disk Utility.

Before one of those beautiful softwares managed to corrupt my partition, i managed to back it up via Disk Utility and save the image on my Mac. Seems like it works somehow, i can read this image via CDXtract but the program freezes and quits after 10 seconds due unexpected error or something.

So right now i left with a pair of unformatted hard drives and a backup image of my samples in dmg format.

One other possible way to move to another IDE drive would be:

* use the SCSI connection as mentioned.
* use an IDE-SCSI convertor (they appear on ebay for a song and the A-Card ones work with the Emu).

You could power the drive from an external PC power supply so you can have two internal drives in the Emu at the same time (thats two IDE drives, one on the IDE bus and one on the SCSI bus with an IDE Convertor.

In theory, if you are not using a lot of internal expansion cards like ADAT, RFX etc then you could use the floppy power supply line and use that to power the second drive - that way, two internal drives - my only concern would be the current if both drives were old school 3.5" IDE drives that draw a lot of current at startup, but if you are doing this once to move to the new drive then it could work out ok as it won't be constantly stressing the PS.

Best if the IDE drive is a 2.5" drive so it uses a lot less power (and more or less silent - a major bonus).

That way you can get an IDE to IDE copy, using the Samplers own backup function.....no dicking about with partition software.

Thats good to know about drive image too.

CDXtract seems a little unstable too - try Transformer from Chicken sys also - newer versions are a lot more stable, but it still not perfect.


M

radioactive wrote:Before one of those beautiful softwares managed to corrupt my partition, i managed to back it up via Disk Utility and save the image on my Mac. Seems like it works somehow, i can read this image via CDXtract but the program freezes and quits after 10 seconds due unexpected error or something.

I fixed this problem with ChickenSys Translator, it's a nice little piece of software innit.

Translator can create something called Virtual Drives from physical HD's and save them in .img format, moreover it has an option to write those images back to physical HD's but for some reason this option leaves the HD completely unreadable by EMU and the computer... Tried it twice and same result.

The thing is that i need to do this HD duplication only once, so if there's any practical solution that doesn't involves ebaying for old SCSI HD's or IDE/SCSI adapters it would be great.

having had my ultra for 10 years now, I can honestly say the best way to backup/copy drives is to get an external scsi drive, with the next best solution being an internal scsi drive or ide-scsi adapter. Although it means laying out a bit more money now, it will save you more in time and effort, and will leave you with a smple backup method that will safeguard all the time and effort you put into programming your presets and banks, now and in the future.

Sorry to sound like a broken record, but I been there and done all the things you're trying and the result was the same, and I'm just trying to give you the benefit of my own experience.

Thanks for the advice Stu! Today i borrowed my mate's a 9GB SCSI HD, but the size of the HD i have to backup is 20GB...

Is it possible to use it to backup individual folders or it will be a waste of time and i'll have to find a 36GB instead?

As far as i know SCSI HD's are going in 4GB, 9GB, 18GB, 36GB, 72GB sizes.

Jesus fucking christ doing it manually takes ages!!!
It took me almost an hour to backup 1GB out of 20!