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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: August 31st, 2018, 15:18 
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The PRO version is now available for purchase:
http://www.sdcomputingservice.com/hddsu ... ro-version

Here are the features of the PRO version as of the time of this post:

PRO Version Features:

This is a list of the features that are only available with the PRO version. Please reference the user manual for further information on any of these features.

* The ability to directly access PATA (IDE) and SATA (AHCI) disk drives. With this direct access it is possible to send soft resets to both, and hard (COM) resets to SATA drives. This allows for using timeouts to perform the resets when the read operation is taking too long. This can greatly speed up the recovery of the good data, as it can skip over the problem areas much faster. This can also help prevent the drive from locking up and going offline, where it would otherwise require a power cycle. The direct access ability does require disabling (hiding) the drive in the OS.

* The Virtual Disk Driver, which will present the live recovery as a virtual disk to the OS. This allows for the use of third party programs such as R-Studio to access the failing source disk through HDDSuperClone. No data is read twice. If data requested has not been read, it will be cloned to the destination drive/image, and then passed on to the virtual disk. If the data requested has already been read, the data will be read from the destination and passed to the virtual disk. This allows for programs to perform data extraction and target just the desired files, without having the clone the entire disk, and while keeping those programs from thrashing on the failing disk.

* The ability to present the virtual disk with a different logical sector size. This can be useful when working with a disk as SATA that was originally USB, and as USB it reported with a logical sector size of 4096, but as SATA it reports with 512 byte logical sector size. Presenting the disk with its original logical sector size can help with data extraction.

* The ability to clone or image 520 byte-per-sector SAS (SCSI) drives. It can also clone them to a 512 byte-per-sector drive or image file, as desired. You must have a NON-RAID card installed for this operation.

* The ability to perform a quick analysis of the disk, so that you can have an idea of what to expect when attempting recovery.

* The ability to show SMART status for devices that support it.

* Allow a sector size other than 512 bytes.

* Allow using the Block Size option to optimize the handling of bad sectors for Advanced Format drives with 4096 bytes per physical sector.

* The Skip Fast option enables a more aggressive skipping algorithm during phase 1 and 2 to help speed up skipping out of a bad spot or bad head.

* Ability to use the ATA return data to mark bad sectors and improve the amount of good data read during the first 4 phases.

* The options Mark Bad Head and Read Bad Head allow the bad areas representing the bad head to be marked in the log, and skipped in any further passes if desired.

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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: September 4th, 2018, 5:55 
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Joined: September 21st, 2013, 8:33
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Let me start by thanking you for putting in the long hours and knowledge into creating a useful tool that, especially with its 30-day pro license option, is priced at what non-professionals can and/or are willing to pay. Please also excuse me for barging in if this is meant to be an announce thread rather than any sort of discussion / support kind of affair.

In any case, I am preparing to try and help out a friend rescue a failing Hitachi with some personal photos (what is wrong with the drive is a story for another day). I usually used ddrescue in such cases but, but what caught my attention in HDDSuperClone is its unique ability to create a live recovery setup with its virtual drive cabability. The way I understand this pro feature is that HSC would present a virtual disk to the host operating system that would allow me to mount one of its partitions and then try to recover only selected files from it, eg. located in a selected folder. That sounds like a gamechanger compared to ddrescue: the drive is failing so if I have a hypothetical 5GB of reads left before it dies, I would much rather rescue personal photos than painfully image Windows system files :)

On to the question though! You give an example of R-Studio that would be able to make use of this feature, but AFAIK R-Studio is Windows only while HSC is Linux-only. Can you suggest a tool that would (1) recover selected folders / paths from a partition on a virtual drive presented by HSC and (2) can run on the same operating system as HSC? What software have you tried this scenario with?

Ps. As someone who occasionally sells something on eBay with payments coming through PayPal, I feel your pain with transaction fees ;)


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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: September 4th, 2018, 8:46 
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Sorry, just came across the manual and it mentions R-Studio, UFS Explorer, and DMDE so please disregard my question :) I have to say I'm loving this tool already for its data preview. Playing with a known good drive for now but it's looking promising.


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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: September 8th, 2018, 2:18 
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HDDSuperClone version 2.0.1 released.

HDDSuperClone Changelog

version 2.0.1 20180908
* Fixed a bug with installing the pro version activation file
* Fixed a bug with the virtual mode buttons in the free version
* Added info in the manual about the domain with virtual mode buttons

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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: September 8th, 2018, 2:25 
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Quote:
The way I understand this pro feature is that HSC would present a virtual disk to the host operating system that would allow me to mount one of its partitions and then try to recover only selected files from it, eg. located in a selected folder. That sounds like a gamechanger compared to ddrescue: the drive is failing so if I have a hypothetical 5GB of reads left before it dies, I would much rather rescue personal photos than painfully image Windows system files :)

Yes, that is intended to be a game changer. While it could be possible to do using the OS file system itself, I do recommend using a third party recovery tool instead (such as the ones mentioned). I only have a paid (and outdated) version of R-Studio, so that is what I used for the example. Also, I think that UFS Explorer has evolved into something else with a different name.

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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: September 10th, 2018, 18:10 
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HDDSuperClone version 2.0.2 released.

HDDSuperClone Changelog

version 2.0.2 20180909
* Improved the virtual driver stability
* Added the Slow Driver checkbutton
* Removed the button colors from the bottom status bar by default
* Added an advanced option to enable button colors in the status bar

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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: October 14th, 2018, 9:42 
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HDDSuperClone version 2.0.3 released.

HDDSuperClone Changelog

version 2.0.3 20181013
* Removed some alpha USB code that could cause a library error
* Made changes to the help option to show the manual
* Fixed a couple typos in the program
* Fixed a bug with autopassthrough on some usb drives

The next release should have capability for USB relay control for power cycles (pro version only).

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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: October 20th, 2018, 17:02 
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HDDSuperClone version 2.1.0 released.

HDDSuperClone Changelog

version 2.1.0 20181020
* Added the ability to control a relay in the Pro version

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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: October 30th, 2018, 20:53 
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HDDSuperClone version 2.1.2 released.

HDDSuperClone Changelog

version 2.1.2 20181029
* Updated the virtual driver section in the manual
* Made changes to some internal debugging code
* Removed the command line option to set the virtual disk name
* Fixed an internal GTK label error
* Fixed a bug with generic mode where all reads would fail

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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: November 17th, 2018, 22:04 
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HDDSuperClone version 2.1.3 released.

HDDSuperClone Changelog

version 2.1.3 20181117
* Fixed a bug where the base skip size was not saved
* Updated the user manual section for hiding a drive

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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: December 5th, 2018, 22:19 
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HDDSuperClone version 2.1.4 released, and also HDDSCViewer version 0.7.alpha

HDDSuperClone Changelog
version 2.1.4 20181204
* Added read time info to the progress log

HDDSCViewer Changelog
version 0.7.alpha 20181204
* Reduceded the number of available languages for translation
* Improved the processing speed when scrolling
* Added additional main grid sizes
* Fixed a bug where some blocks were not correct status

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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: December 24th, 2018, 16:01 
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HDDSuperClone version 2.1.5 released. All of the changes are for the Pro version. Other than fixing a typo that is not documented in the changelog, there is no functionality change to the free version.

HDDSuperClone Changelog

version 2.1.5 20181222
* Fixed a bug where using a relay caused fill mode to fail
* Added an initial reset in direct mode when choosing the source
* Disabled the main window while processing the source
* The driver will now start automatically on 32 bit memory error

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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: January 2nd, 2019, 16:04 
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HDDSuperClone version 2.1.6 released.

HDDSuperClone Changelog

version 2.1.6 20190102
* Now shows message for unsupported sector size in the free version
* Fixed a bug where SCSI passthrough could report drive sized changed

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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: January 19th, 2019, 15:17 
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HDDSuperClone version 2.1.7 released. This version fixed an elusive bug with direct AHCI mode, where I now feel there should be little to no hardware compatibility issues with different computers.

HDDSuperClone Changelog

version 2.1.7 20190116
* Fixed a missing error message when chosing the source
* Improved how the progress log is written to help avoid corruption
* The domain file is no longer written if it is not being used
* Fixed a bug with direct AHCI mode

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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: February 3rd, 2019, 19:36 
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HDDSuperClone 2.1.8 released.

HDDSuperClone Changelog

version 2.1.8 20190203
* Improved how trimming handles major errors
* Added 0.5 sec to the first read soft reset time
* Fixed a bug where phase logs were disabled if no log backup
* Fixed a bug where the phase logs setting was not saved
* Added an additional message when cloning stops for any reason
* Fixed a bug where SCSI mode would still use ATA identify data
* Added the Tools menu option Display Identify Results
* Enable using ATA return is now on by default in pro version

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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: May 26th, 2019, 21:37 
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By popular request, there is now an available live cd based on lubuntu 18.04 64 bit. This is for those that want to access NVME SSD drives and are finding the 14.04 version is not able to recognize them.

And also here are the recent updates, mostly for the pro version.

HDDSuperClone Changelog

version 2.1.12 20190427
* Fixed a bug with AHCI where drives listed with no data
* Fixed a bug where SMART data would fail after stopping

version 2.1.11 20190423
* Fixed a bug with drives visable to the OS in direct mode
* Added a program script that can install program dependencies

version 2.1.10 20190419
* Improved SCSI write error detection
* Changed the direct SCSI write timeout to 2 seconds
* Fixed a bug with direct AHCI for some motherboards
* Updated some info in the WD VSC scripts
* Added the script wd_royl_write_mod

version 2.1.9 20190328
* Added a section in the user manual for relay operation
* Improved the SCSI read mode support detection
* Added a 1 second timeout for direct SCSI writes
* Added extra info about direct SCSI writes in the manual
* Added a translated Russian language pack

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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: August 5th, 2019, 17:13 
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HDDSuperClone version 2.13 released.

HDDSuperClone Changelog

version 2.1.13 20190804
* Fixed a bug with the timing byte
* Fixed a bug with some USB drives bad reads reporting as good
* Fixed a bug where SCSI passthrough would not work on old drives
* Fixed the generic source device mode
* Fixed a bug with the model name in generic source device mode
* Changed some of the default timeouts to a higher value

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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: August 5th, 2019, 19:29 
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So I have been working on my Direct USB mode, which I now have at the beta level, and here is some information.

First, this is meant for drives that cannot be connected as SATA. It is not meant to be an adapter for SATA to USB. It could be used for other types of storage devices such as SD cards or NVMe drives with a USB adapter.

I only have SATA drives to test with, so all of my tests are using some form of USB to SATA adapter, which I say you should not be doing. But that is all I have to test with at this time. I will likely be asking for some beta testing help.

My testing with different USB adapters gave different results with different adapters. That means that the real world results will depend on the USB bridge of the device.

For SATA not all adapters directly support passthrough soft or hard resets, so I would think this could carry over to actual USB only drives.

Even without direct support for resets, there is a special reset for USB mass storage devices, called a Bulk Only Reset. This reset will trigger whatever resets the USB bridge needs to do (and is capable of) to reset the storage device. For SATA this reset itself will likely trigger a soft or hard reset, if it is capable. In the event of other types of adapters, it should be possible it would attempt to perform whatever reset could be done.

Resets can be performed on a timeout setting. If the device has not responded within the timeout limit, the reset process is started. If it is successful, the device will become ready again for the next command. If the reset is not supported or has no effect, you then still have to wait for the device to become ready.

In my testing, I have successfully used short timeouts to reset USB connected SATA drives to speed up the error handling process, very similar to timeouts on a SATA connected drive.

For drives that have some sort of “slow” issue, it can be possible to speed up the overall read speed by greatly increasing the cluster size (which is not possible using the OS reads). The idea is that the drive is performing a background operation between reads which causes all reads to take a long time. By increasing the read size, the ratio of data read per background operation is increased, allowing for a much faster overall data transfer. I only have one WD drive to test this with, but I am able to increase the overall read speed by a factor of 100.

For devices that could potentially require a very long timeout setting, you can set the timeout up to a stupid high 15 minutes (same as the other direct modes).

For devices that need to be power cycled, it will work with an external relay (which you would need to purchase and wire on your own, the instructions are on the website). Along with the usual drive issues, this may work well for some solid state devices that need to be power cycled often on a short timeout.

Overall, the Direct USB mode has good potential, but it still relies on the USB bridge, so results will vary. Only further testing will give a sign of the true potential.

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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: August 6th, 2019, 22:20 
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I would just like to add that I have a SATA drive that locks up when connected to a computer where the OS tries to read it (the very beginning of the drive has major issues that cause it to go into device fault and lockup if attempted to read). The drive can be accessed in Direct AHCI mode with disabling of the SATA port, but this is to prove USB access. The drive lockup would also happen if connected via USB, but Linux has commands to disable mass USB storage devices in whole, so that any USB storage device is left alone (side effect is that no other USB storage devices can be accessed at all, so no cloning to any other USB device). If I disable mass USB storage devices so the OS does not try to read it, and connect the drive to my USB adapter, I am able to read it using timeouts to get past the bad spot. This is a drive that absolutely cannot be read by any computer OS because it locks up, but I can read it with a USB adapter using the Direct USB mode.

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 Post subject: Re: HDDSuperClone - A new Linux hard drive cloning/imaging t
PostPosted: August 17th, 2019, 19:19 
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I am considering stopping my work on HDDSuperClone, and just making it open source with limited or no further support. It is taking up way to much of my free time to maintain and update it, plus the expected support. And only a small number have purchased the pro version. The small amount of extra income I have gained from it is not worth the time and effort. This is not set in stone yet, but I am really seriously thinking about this.

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