Cloning an ETC Element harddrive

ryanj989

Member
Good morning everyone. I have an ETC Element console with a drive that is probably going flaky. Having another ETC Element die last year (1 week before run) and completely losing everything, I am a little gun shy when it comes to depending on a mechanical drive when SSDs are so cheap and prevalent. So, my question is: Can I make a clone of my Element's harddrive using Ghost/Acronis, etc and have it work alright? I didn't want to remove the drive and try to clone it and end up bricking the drive because of some little know drive encryption or the like. Any help is appreciated!
 
It's a good question for ETC support ([email protected]).

I believe ETC is not doing anything funky with drives so cloning should work fine but you should confirm with them rather than trust the word of a random stranger on the internet.

It's not clear from your post if you are intending to clone to an SSD but assuming that's the plan, it probably won't work or may work badly if it works at all. Windows XP can't really handle an SSD effectively without installing 3rd-party drivers, tweaking system settings, and formatting the SSD in specific ways to align partions on 4K boundaries . Windows XP Embedded as used on older Elements isn't going to allow that to happen. XP doesn't support the SATA TRIM command so SSD performance and life will suffer.
 
It's a good question for ETC support ([email protected]).

I believe ETC is not doing anything funky with drives so cloning should work fine but you should confirm with them rather than trust the word of a random stranger on the internet.

It's not clear from your post if you are intending to clone to an SSD but assuming that's the plan, it probably won't work or may work badly if it works at all. Windows XP can't really handle an SSD effectively without installing 3rd-party drivers, tweaking system settings, and formatting the SSD in specific ways to align partions on 4K boundaries . Windows XP Embedded as used on older Elements isn't going to allow that to happen. XP doesn't support the SATA TRIM command so SSD performance and life will suffer.

With the SSD, that is kind of what I figured, but I wasn't sure what the base OS actually was on these systems. If I can just have an image I can keep as a fallback (in case a drive does decide to belly up), re-imaging a new drive isn't too much trouble, compared to having to send it back.

I have tried to contact ETC, but not sure when I will get a reply back, but I figured if there was a horror-story concerning cloning a drive, then no doubt someone would probably throw in their $0.02 worth.
 
They have a 24/7 hotline. If they don’t call you back in 15 mins they buy you a steak dinner.
 
If you want to try it and not spend a lot of bucks, I use G4L (linux live cd) can boot on any pc and gives you a whole host of copy/cloning utilities for free.
I have used it successfully with the SATA to usb dongle adaptors, but it's faster to plug in to your SATA directly. Gotta be real careful on identifying your image and your target.
Safest way is to make an image file to your pc hard drive (if it's big enough) and restore that image to the new HD. That way you never do a wipe and write with your original attached to the system
G4L will make a bit by bit low level copy also if you want it to. Very versatile, and free (check for it on sourceforge) I found acronis was more interested in you not pirating acronis than they were in letting you clone your drive, but that's been a few years... but it was a PITA for me.
 
Another inexpensive way would be to use the Backup feature in the Shell - From the browser, select Exit, and then when highlighted click on Settings.
In the configuration Utility (or shell) under Maintenance, there is the Backup/Restore Show Archive as well as the File Manager functions. From the manual: {Backup Show Archive...} allows you to either backup the most current version of each show file or every version of each file to a USB drive or file server. {Restore Show Archive...} allows you to restore show files from a USB drive or file server. {File Manager} provides a way to manage show files. You can create and delete folders, move, and copy files between the desk and USB drives. The file manager display will show the ShowArchive folder on your desk as well as any external USB drives that are detected. The display is split into two windows, so you can see two different folders at the same time for copying or moving data between them.

And the steak dinner, not a thing! Sorry.
 
Just a quick update. I figured I would just give it a try. Used a laptop with an external SATA connection to hook up the existing drive. Booted up the laptop with Falcon 4 boot CD, ran the Windows XP PE (Preinstall environment), and then ran Ghost. Found the ETC drive and made a clone image file of it (about 42GB). After it was completed I then grabbed an old mechanical SATA drive I had laying around, imaged that bad boy with the ETC image and hooked it up to the Element. Sucker booted right up and loaded everything just fine. So, it looks like a standard image cloning program will do the trick. I'm keeping the drive in a safe place and have an image file on my server in case the original drive gives up the ghost! Thanks for everyone's replies, it was nice to know there are also other ways to deal with this as well!
 

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