Fast Safe Disk Cloning

[altrenda]

I want to improve my disk cloning capability.
Currently I am using an older Dell core 2 Duo with 2 gigs ram, Parted Magic on a flash drive and connect the drives via sata. I just did a 500 gig WD 2.5 removed from an external case that took about 6 hours.

Questions
1 In building a pc for the task, is it processor intensive, ram intensive? would more ram in my current core 2 duo be enough improvement?

2. are the strand alone disk cloners faster? are they safe? I assume they use some type Linux as the OS.

3. what do you use and what is an average time for say a 250 gig drive?

Thanks

 

[lcoughey]

Where you cloning at a file system level or a sector level?

ddrescue should get at least 100MB/second transfer rate on the 2.5" 500GB drive...probably more. That should translate to about 1.5 hours or less.

But, if you are backing up the file system from a 500GB drive that is quite full with lots of files, you may only get an average rate of 25MB/second or less, which would translate to about 5.5 hours or more.

Cloning does not require much RAM or processing power as it relies on the speeds of the source and destination drive and the bus between the two.

 

[300DDR]

You should just buy a Deepspar Disk Imager, nothing is better for straight-up disk cloning. You could buy a Yec product (maybe a bit cheaper), but DDI is so much better.

 

[altrenda]

I used the syntax similar to this from the guide here.
ddrescue -d -f -r3 /dev/sda /dev/sdb /media/usb1/rescue.logfile

 

[Larry Sabo]

The Atola Bandura is a great hardware duplicator, but they discontinued the product. You can still find it in the sales channels at a lot less than a DDI. I have one; it's very fast, does a great job at recovering data from unstable drives, and it incorporates a number of additional useful features. I also have a Dolphin Data Lab DDP USB 3.0 imager, which incorporates quite a number of firmware repair features for popular drive brands. However, it's priced almost the same as a DDI.

 

[lcoughey]

If you are looking for a low cost hardware imager with high speeds, you could check out Startech.com.

The ddrescue command you used should work fine...though I wouldn't do a 3 retry command until after the first pass has completed. Did the drive have any errors? Were the source and destination connected directly via SATA?

 

[unclemarv]

+1 on the startech hdd duplicators. They are great for straight disk-to-disk copies and are pretty quick (usually 30-45 minutes even for 1 TB). If the new drive is larger, I just use a partition resizer to use the entire drive.

 

[allanc]

If you are looking for a low cost hardware imager with high speeds, you could check out Startech.com.

Something as inexpensive as this?
http://ca.startech.com/HDD/Duplicators/SATA-Hard-Drive-HDD-Duplicator-Dock-eSATA-USB~SATDOCK22RE

 

[unclemarv]

Allan... here's mine sitting on my desk. Use almost every day either to clone, or to access drives through USB.

 

[allanc]

Allan... here's mine sitting on my desk. Use almost every day either to clone, or to access drives through USB.

I have several of the StarTech 'docks' also, USB 2, USB 3 and ESATA.
But they do not clone.
Are the <$100 good enough or am I going to regret not buying a high-end model?

 

[unclemarv]

I have the satdock22re that you linked to earlier. I don't think there's much difference in the satdock2u33re except for the USB 3.0... I'm skeptical that really makes a difference with SSD, but it's cheap enough on Amazon to try. The only other one I considered was the satdock4u3re, but I don't have a shop where I'm building systems anymore.

 

[allanc]

I have the satdock22re that you linked to earlier. I don't think there's much difference in the satdock2u33re except for the USB 3.0... I'm skeptical that really makes a difference with SSD, but it's cheap enough on Amazon to try. The only other one I considered was the satdock4u3re, but I don't have a shop where I'm building systems anymore.

I am trying to remember why I didn't buy a dock with the clone feature when I made my purchases.
Has the price of the units that clone decreased substantially recently or was I mostly asleep at the keyboard?

 

[gikstar]

I am trying to remember why I didn't buy a dock with the clone feature when I made my purchases.
Has the price of the units that clone decreased substantially recently or was I mostly asleep at the keyboard?

Might you have gone to Newegg and checked the reviews on the units, specifically the USB 3.0 unit has some pretty poor reviews. I'll stick with attaching both drives to one of my bench computers and cloning that way. I either clone or create a backup of just about every computer that comes in.

 

[altrenda]

Looking at Amazon or Newegg, there are people who love them and people who hate them. Most of the complaints on the Startech and Cavalry products are the build quality. They just stop working.
Par for the course for most low cost Chinese gear these days. Great when they work, but for how long?

 

[allanc]

Might you have gone to Newegg and checked the reviews on the units, specifically the USB 3.0 unit has some pretty poor reviews. I'll stick with attaching both drives to one of my bench computers and cloning that way. I either clone or create a backup of just about every computer that comes in.

Could very well be.
My personality type is usually analytical.

 

[lcoughey]

When I was referring to Startech, I was thinking more of this - http://ca.startech.com/HDD/Duplicators/sata-hdd-duplicator~SATDUP11IMG. It is a stand alone unit. The toaster model mentioned above is useless, IMHO.

 

[allanc]

When I was referring to Startech, I was thinking more of this - http://ca.startech.com/HDD/Duplicators/sata-hdd-duplicator~SATDUP11IMG. It is a stand alone unit. The toaster model mentioned above is useless, IMHO.

Thank you.

 

[SpaceSquad]

The toaster model mentioned above is useless, IMHO.

Why's that?

I am going to guess you mean in a data recovery situation...which I would agree with you and I do not use it in those situations.

 

[allanc]

Why's that?

I am going to guess you mean in a data recovery situation...which I would agree with you and I do not use it in those situations.

My usage would be only clone and dock.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

When I was referring to Startech, I was thinking more of this - http://ca.startech.com/HDD/Duplicators/sata-hdd-duplicator~SATDUP11IMG. It is a stand alone unit. The toaster model mentioned above is useless, IMHO.

Is there a benefit to this over using ddrescue?