Cloning EHD

[satinsticksguy]

I've read here that this can be done using Linux. Can this be done with a Mac (OS x 10.5.8) using Terminal? I've purchased a larger drive for my 722 DVR, and want to use the current drive for our computers. Thanks.

 

[robstudio]

I'm 99% sure not... needs the Linux filesystem on the hard drive. If you have a 722 why not copy back to the internal and then to the new drive? Probably safer and less hassle. As well, if you clone the drive it remains at the original reported drive space.
Cloning is most useful for a failing drive... YMMV...
....
edit to add...

100% must use Linux... it uses 2 partitions...

 

[Jim5506]

Format the new drive with the Dish receiver, then attach both drives to a computer booted into linux and copy the Disharc folders from the old to the new drive - DONE.

 

[TheKrell]

The OP wants to do this with a Mac. I think he will have to add the ext3 file system to his Mac to do it that way. Recommend Googling OS X 10.5.8 and ext3.

 

[Will94]

So the Dish DVR is a simple ext3 drive? Is this true for DirecTV as well? I assume these are 2.5" or 3.5" SATA drives?

 

[TheKrell]

IIRC, the partitions on the internal drives are not (all) ext3 file systems. But the archive EHD is indeed composed of a small ext3 partition at the beginning, followed by some number of approx 500GB ext3 partitions filling out the disk. I have no idea what DirecTV is doing.

 

[satinsticksguy]

The OP wants to do this with a Mac. I think he will have to add the ext3 file system to his Mac to do it that way. Recommend Googling OS X 10.5.8 and ext3.

Apparently, this is correct. The ext3 file system is not native to the Mac OS. However, there is a driver from Paragon that can be added to give access to ext3 drives. For those who may not know, you can boot a Mac into "single user mode" which gives access to the unix command line. I do this occasionally to run fsck. However, since this is basically the only command I know, I think I will be better off just copying the movies back to the internal drive and then to the new drive. I was hoping there was a quick and simple way of doing this, but it will be much safer for me to do it the hard way. But thanks for all of the responses.

 

[empiretc]

The OP wants to do this with a Mac.

He can use a live disc (distro of his choice). Will be easier.

 

[CJPC]

Assuming there is nothing tying the data to the specific disk, dd should do the trick.

dd if=/dev/sdX of=myfile.bin

Something along those lines would do the trick, but it will probably take quite a bit of time. Ideally, pipe it thru gzip as well to compress it a bit.

Edit: No, you don't need linux, you could even use Windows if you really wanted to (why, I don't know), but dd will do a 1:1 image of the disk.