How should i clone my hardrive?

[Xanxi]

Hi.

I wish to copy all my A1200 hard-drive (10 GB IDE drive, with 3 SFS partitions) onto a 8 GB CF card with CF2IDE adapter.

I thought of connecting both on the same IDE cable for partitioning, formating and copying, but i can't do that because of drives names: if i partition the CF, i can't name the partitions DH0, DH1 and DH2 as i need because the first disk get the same names.
I though also of copying through a cf-pcmcia adapter, but it seems too slow and unreliable.

Any advice on this problem? I would love a tool like Acronis True Image i use on the PC.

Thanks.

[Thomas]

if i partition the CF, i can't name the partitions DH0, DH1 and DH2 as i need because the first disk get the same names.

You can use the same names, the driver will change them automatically if it encounters duplicates. But you can as well use different names and change them later.

And you can as well keep the different names. Why do you think you would have to use the same names on the new HDD? Names are completely irrelevant.

[Xanxi]

You can use the same names, the driver will change them automatically if it encounters duplicates. But you can as well use different names and change them later.

And you can as well keep the different names. Why do you think you would have to use the same names on the new HDD? Names are completely irrelevant.

Well, i am speaking of logical names as DH0:, not Workbench: or anything else.

I can't type in a CLI copy all DH0: to DH0: without any confusion.

I could also give the logical name HD0: instead to the new disk, but i prefer to clone properly to not confuse paths and assigns.

[Cammy]

I would LHA the whole drive into one file on the CF card rather than try copying every single file, it seems to take less time when I do that and it makes it easier to move the whole system around on PCs and other filesystems without losing all the important metadata.

[sledge]

I would LHA the whole drive into one file on the CF card rather than try copying every single file, it seems to take less time when I do that and it makes it easier to move the whole system around on PCs and other filesystems without losing all the important metadata.

I do the same. Lha the entire drive to a file. Works great.

[doctorq]

I can't type in a CLI copy all DH0: to DH0: without any confusion.

I could also give the logical name HD0: instead to the new disk, but i prefer to clone properly to not confuse paths and assigns.

Well, Copy all DH0: to DH0: wouldn't give you anything good anyways. If you keep the same names for the drives one of them will still be called DH0: and the other will be called DH0.0:

As for confusing paths; what's there to be confused about? As long as you can load to Workbench one time, you can change the drive name and reset, and you are all set. You could even to it with the Install disk if needed.

[Karlos]

Well, i am speaking of logical names as DH0:, not Workbench: or anything else.

I can't type in a CLI copy all DH0: to DH0: without any confusion.

I could also give the logical name HD0: instead to the new disk, but i prefer to clone properly to not confuse paths and assigns.

The last time I put two hard disks with a conflicting device name (DH0:, as it happens) into an amiga, the second disk ended up automatically assigned the device name DH0.1:, and that was in the OS3.1 days.

[nOw2]

In addition to what has been said, do a 'copy all clone dh0: dh0.0:'

'Clone' ensures that file comments and timestamps are copied also.

[Xanxi]

What about a clean and painless copy through pcmcia?
My CF adapter comes from the finnish fine guy who sells them on EAB and is triangular shaped with female adapter. Thus, it is not simple to plug it on the ide cable along with the original hard drive. Of course i also have a pcmcia-cf adapter.

[amigakit]

EasyADF will allow you to backup whole partitions or directories easily into a LHA file with a few clicks.  Here is the tutorial:

http://www.amigakit.co.uk/support/easyadf-backup.php

This may be useful for users that want to backup their entire System partition to another hard disk or Compact Flash card for safekeeping.

[Thorham]

i can't name the partitions DH0, DH1 and DH2 as i need because the first disk get the same names.

Simple:

1) Name the partitions on the CF card DH00, DH10, DH20.
2) Copy all partitions.
3) Use partition software to change the device names to DH0, DH1 and DH2 (this will not destroy any of the data, regardless of what the partitioning software says).

[AmigaEd]

I thought that Xanxi was asking for suggestions of tools and advice on how he could clone his hard drive. It seems to me that cloning is somewhat different from copying everything on the hard drive into an archive such as an LHA file.

I've never looked into cloning my hard drives on an my Amigas (never felt insecure enough about it, I guess), but I regularly use Acronis and Norton Ghost in the evil PC world and DD with Linux.

Regards,
Ed

[spirantho]

A clone of a hard disk is only useful if you want to store the actual structure of the files on the hard disk - something you very rarely need to do. On a PC it does guarantee that you're getting what you expect (Windows is so complicated it'd probably get confused with file copies) but on an Amiga you really don't need it.

Connect source HD0: to IDE bus (or anywhere else)
Connect target HD0: to IDE bus (or anywhere else)
Boot HD0:
Newshell
Copy HD0: HD0.1: all clone quiet
Remove source HD0:
Done. This will also defragment your hard disk in the process (not that helps much if it's solid state, but still....)

If you really want to clone your disk, you'll need any disk-imaging program which allows variable device names and specifications - I think Quarterback Tools would do it, and there will be others.... but it's really not necessary except in very special circumstances.

[Xanxi]

Well, i am stuck anyway, as i can't connect either my IDE-CF nor my IDE-SDHC adapter as slave on the same IDE cable than the hard drive (no jumper at all).

I guess i am going to copy/LHA all through PCMCIA adapters if i can get the CF or the SDHC properly partitionned and formatted in SFS, but i'm afraid it will take a long time (DH0: is only 100 MB but the two other partitions are several GB).

[fitzsteve]

Why not connect your HDD to your PC and do all your work in WinUAE?