CF-30 - Clone hard drive

We're looking to clone a CF-30 Hard-disk (160 GB, SATA). We're looking into a hardware solution to do this rather than using software to clone it. If anyone one has any info. on what type of hard-disk duplicators to purchase that would work with the adaptor that Panasonic has on there for the casing of the hard-disk, it would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

So you want a HARDWARE solution to clone the HDDs while they are IN the Panasonic HD Caddys?
If yes, then you are NOT going to find anything...
You need to just settle on using software.

 

So there is no adaptor that can plug into the Panasonic Caddy that would allow me to clone? This has never been accomplished before via hardware solution?

 

I'm sure it has been done, at PANASONIC..
Or they just roll out the images onto the drives before placement into the caddy.

Either way, if you were cloning via software, you'd be done by now.

What kind of connector does the CF-30 caddy have??
Is it micro or mini sata or proprietary like it was in the CF-29 and every other model?

 

Agreed...I'm sure they are doing it AT Panasonic

My problem is, we need to clone 200 (yes 200) CF-30 hard-disks and i'm not sure that going via the software route is the most feasible, timewise.

I think the connector on the CF-30 is proprietary.

Thanks!

 

Ugh... 200 eh?
Who ya deploying for? The Army?
Unless you had spare parts to possibly MAKE something, you'd better pack a lunch.

Unless you have a master image and you do a wired PXE boot with them and deploy the images that way... Still a pain.

There will be no easy solution...

 

On the right track....

I did put in a call to our Panasonic Rep, I guess i'll wait and see what his response it.

Thanks!

 

They "might" have something to recommend, but I could only imagine that it would not be cheap...

 

I agree, which is why I thought I might be able to find a cheaper solution, but i'm afraid that's not going to happen. Will keep you posted!

 

In almost all cases Panasonic use Ghost/ImageX/other software solution to pull the image off a network drive on to the local hard disk - it's far easier then doing it in hardware and fits with the processes.

 

There is no "cheap" solution for hardware cloning but here are some options:

OPTION #1) you must remove the drive out of caddy, which is what I use... ICS IMAGE MASTER 2000. Machine is an older model but works great and is a lot cheaper. This guy on eBay may include the laptop cables if you ask nicely... he's been selling them forever ICS Image MASSTER 2000 - Hard Drive DUPLICATOR/COPIER on eBay.ca (item 230495771800 end time 04-Aug-10 15:26:03 EDT)

Cables are IDE but you can get IDE to SATA cable adapters cheap on eBay that should do the trick just fine.

OPTION #2) If you must clone the drives while in the laptop you need a PCMCIA card along with the duplicator that would contain the blank hard drive. This system is limited to cloning 1 drive at a time. with OPTION 1) you could clone 4 at a time.

Check out the LOGICUBE website Logicube - Hard Drive and Media Duplication Echo PLUS Product Details and eBay (search LOGICUBE)

Hope that helps, good luck !

 

It should be possible (as we like to hack stuff around here) to make what you need out of the HD connector on the inside of the unit. If you are doing 200 of these.... Either your Panny Rep needs to earn his pay or you need to go around him and just get started taking them all apart.

With that said... I've spent hours chasing a solution and it took me twice as long than if I would have just rolled my sleeves up and gotten it done. (Haven't we all?) 200 drives X 20 minute cloning time would take 66 hours... So you get a little overtime. Run Acronis on a few machines and take it down to 33 or 16 hours... If this is a situation where you expect to do another 1000 more in the future... I would just get busy cloning while your rep works out details... And if you DO have another 1000 to do... Then your rep BETTER be able to help you out...

 

TB hit the nail on the head.

You can burn a dvd image for your hdd cloned image, (manualy set up one image) then get usb dvd drives or if you have internal boot to the disk and bam imaged and ready to go

 

My solution would be this:

Set up a PXE boot server to deploy over the network. Average time 8-15 minutes per machine at 100Mbps connection. No additional hardware needed; everything you need is built into the Toughbook.
Google PXE Deploy; you'll find a hundred hits.

OR:

Use the first machine to create disk images on 10 cheapo USB 2.0 HDD enclosures/HDDs using bootable Ghost disc. While that's happening, make 9 more copies of your Ghost boot disk.

Use the HDDs and Ghost boot disks to get them going assembly line style; once you have the HDDs & Ghost disks made, you could have them done in a couple days. Averaging 5 minutes hands-on per laptop due to assembly-line process x 200 units = 16.667 hours; of course, extra manpower could cut that time drastically.

mnem
I fought with Kenobi in the Clone Wars...

 

Wait a minute... these are CF-30s. They have a SATA HDD in them; I've just looked at a cr@pload of pics online, but of course NO-ONE will post a good resolution pic of the actual connector bridge. From what I can see though... it looks as if they may actually use standard SATA connectors on the OUTSIDE of the enclosure as well.

Could one of you guys *coughRICKcoughTBTECH* post a good high resolution pic of that connector bridge here for us?

Thanks...

mnem
Harder. Heh.

 

I don't have a picture, but I do have a CF-30 caddy. The external connector is definitely not a standard SATA connector.

Glen

 

After talking to the Panasonic rep, this is the suggestion:

Get a SATA hard-disk duplicator with this adaptor listed below

http://eng.estock.fr/images/prods/large/CF-K30JG001.JPG

Definitely not the cheap solution that I was hoping for

 

arunkk

This is going to be your easiest and cheapest solution.

 

Is it possible that the connector is SATA and eSATA?

Just a thought...

mnem
Curiouser and curiouser...

 

Definatly not a standard sata connector....

 

We used to use Logic Cubes 1 - 5 IDE desktop cloner about 8 years ago when I was working with the local school district... Logicube.com, hard drive duplication, copying hard drives & computer forensics They worked GREAT! So damn expensive though.... we were cloning Win 98 and Win 2000 machines.

We had a smaller version of this (SATA wasn't out at the time so all we were cloning was IDE drives): http://www.logicube.com/products/hd_duplication/omniclone10xi.asp

 

Ugghhh...

Looking at the pics I could find, all one could see was the top of the connector bridge, not the actual connectors. It looked POSSIBLE that there was a standard SATA Power & SATA Serial connectors plus an additional connector (I guessed for the HDD heater) in that assembly.

So much for that.

I'm going to stick with my original suggestion then -

PXE Boot to an image on your LAN, or cascade a bunch of USB HDDs & Ghost disks.

mnem
More spoo, please.

 

I have been exchanging emails with a Panny tech guy about trying to get my hands on a CF-30 W7 Recovery disk from him. I almost had him

Anyways, he said for $300.00 !!!!!!!!!!! I can send him my HDD WITH the caddy and Heartland would clone it for me. Obviously that's not a very wise decision.

I have tried using Acronis but there is so many freakin options I gave up Unless of course I was making it more difficult than it's supposed to be, which is 100% accurate!

 

I use Acronis with about 5 mouse clicks.... I'm cloned... Don't you see two of me now?

 

This may help somehow

Panasonic CF-30 Toughbook Recovery DVDs

Ebay Item number: 320559144042

 

Should we be afraid?

 

Ghost Enterprise is the best way to go in my opinion. You can create the master image that is stored on the server. Then you can multicast it to as many cf-30's simultaneosly. And you only need a bootable floppy with DOS and the ghost client.

 

Be afraid. Be VERY afraid.

mnem
meep!

 

The is a interface (gender changer) that attached to the Toughbook drive pack and convert to standard SATA interface. You don't need to take the drive out of the pack. Go to Panasonic Toughbook Laptop Computers, Vehicle Mounting ,Service and Repair - MRuggedMobile.com and call Mark

 

Will Acronis Workstation burn me a stack of DVDs to load a clone on a new, virgin drive?

EDIT: Acronis dude called in response to me DL'ing a demo. Said it's a go. He even sent the ISO files, not included in the demo, I need to do a restore to a dissimilar disc. After all that I think I'm going to do a fresh os build. Acronis is still OK in my book (pun optional) though.

 

That is what I used when I went IDE to SATA. I wasn't sure if recovery discs would make me get that "no hard drive found" error you get with those Fujitsu machines.

 

I need to find one of you guys that lives in the Atlanta area and show me what the **** I am doing wrong with Acronis! Is that Azrial who lives here I think?

 

Personally I hate cloning software
Unless your original drive's software load is perfect ,you end up just transferring something less than perfect
I enjoy the software tweaking and loading and find it easy
Some others here find this frustrating and time consuming

 

Only issues I had with cloning is if I accidentally put the image in a encrypted folder and forget to undo it.