HDD GURU FORUMS

Looking for a specific hdd raw clone / restore software.

Requirements:

- Work in Windows 7 (so dd is not an alternative)
- Work on device level (HD) - (not partition dependant) === raw byte-to-byte clone
- Possibility to define an user-determined area (lba start ... lba end) to ble cloned on source hdd - i.e: not mandatory to clone all physical hdd area
- Clone this area range to an image file and compress it on the fly
- Be able to restore this image directly to an physical device (hdd)
- Be able to perform all the above without need to apply HPA source HDD, require to power down or reboot the PC or require a hardware tool like pc3k


What I have tested so far:

HDD RAW copy tool (from Hddguru files)
Lacks the option to define an area range on source HDD (obligates me to clone all device)

Winhex clone range to file on windows NTFS compressed folder
NTFS has uncertain limitation on compressed file sizes, Windows seems to abort most file creation when compressed files becomes larger than 200GB (real used size)

R-studio Image creation using region with R-Image restore
R-image restore from physical raw clone is buggy, even when restoring image to the same physicall hdd from which it was created, says it can´t restore file due to different sector size.


The best option I found that work so far:

step 1: R-studio to create compressed file from determined area range

step 2: R-Studio restore compressed file image to temporary byte-to-byte not compressed file image on temp HDD <--- would like to remove this step !!
R-studio seems to lack an option to restore compressed file directly to a physical hdd

step 3: Winhex restore raw byte-to-byte temp image file back to a physical HDD

This works, but I´d like to remove step 2 from the process, as it requires aditional time (extra restore operation) and an aditional temporary hdd



Any software suggestions?

Could HDD RAW copy tool still be updated to allow LBA range (start / end) to be defined?
Does anyone know if R-studio have an option to restore an compressed image directly to a physycal HDD?



Thanks in advance,




p.s.
Before someone asks, source hdd have in general a lot zeroed sectors so a 2TB hdd generally compress to 100GB ~ 300GB image file
That is why I need the byte-by-byte clone to be made to a compressed image file ...

source hdd have in general a lot zeroed sectors so a 2TB hdd generally compress to 100GB

That sounds very optimistic and depends highly on usage of source drive, but how about storing your image in an NTFS compressed folder which will take care of your on the fly compression and decompression?

Arch Stanton wrote:

source hdd have in general a lot zeroed sectors so a 2TB hdd generally compress to 100GB

That sounds very optimistic and depends highly on usage of source drive, but how about storing your image in an NTFS compressed folder which will take care of your on the fly compression and decompression?

That is not optimism, its statistical data from more than 30 real cases

As for NTFS compressed folder, I already tried that:

BR wrote:

Winhex clone range to file on windows NTFS compressed folder

It is ruled out as an option because NTFS compressed folders have an undocumented uncertain limit that will cause a failure when storing large files.
On my tests, it seems to be reached when the compressed file size (real disk usage, not original file size) reaches around 150GB

And it is not a PC problem or software problem, I tested in more than 1 HD, and more than 1 PC and with other softwares than Winhex.
Everytime the file on the compressed folder real usage reaches around 150GB it´s creation is stopped with an error.

Could you use a script to break the desired LBA range into smaller 128GB regions, say, and then compress these regions into separate image files?

-BR- wrote:

Arch Stanton wrote:

source hdd have in general a lot zeroed sectors so a 2TB hdd generally compress to 100GB

That sounds very optimistic and depends highly on usage of source drive, but how about storing your image in an NTFS compressed folder which will take care of your on the fly compression and decompression?

That is not optimism, its statistical data from more than 30 real cases

As for NTFS compressed folder, I already tried that:

BR wrote:

Winhex clone range to file on windows NTFS compressed folder

It is ruled out as an option because NTFS compressed folders have an undocumented uncertain limit that will cause a failure when storing large files.
On my tests, it seems to be reached when the compressed file size (real disk usage, not original file size) reaches around 150GB

And it is not a PC problem or software problem, I tested in more than 1 HD, and more than 1 PC and with other softwares than Winhex.
Everytime the file on the compressed folder real usage reaches around 150GB it´s creation is stopped with an error.

Sorry, missed that you already tried. So, what's the error?

Ow, wow, 30 cases ..

Interesting, with regards to the NTFS compressed folder issue. http://www.flexhex.com/docs/articles/sparse-files.phtml

https://www.disk-image.com/options_raw.htm, dunno if it suits your purpose I just googled.

UFS Explorer Pro.
Use SDLSparse virtual storage creation.
Use:
** Map of used FS blocks for:
* APFS
* EXT2-EXT4
* ExFAT
* FAT12, FAT16, FAT32
* HFS+
* NTFS
* ReFS, ReFS3
* ReiserFS,
* UFS, UFS/BE, Adaptec UFS
* XFS, XFS5
* VMFS, VMFS6
* VirtualRFS
Also:

** Disk imager function (read method/timeout, direction, jump settings etc.);
* optional "safe zone" test;
* saving map of defect blocks;
* use FS map for used space imaging;
* ATA mode imager;
* SCSI mode imager;

At the end you will get sparse image file where only used space presented.
You can open that sdls file same way with tool (just open it) and reimage to normal destination storage/file.

- Work in Windows 7 (so dd is not an alternative)

maybe try Gnu on Windows? https://github.com/bmatzelle/gow . It has dd and 100+ more commands inc dd

and https://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/Applications_GUI_Multimedia/How_To_Do_Eveything_With_DD

for reference.

dd looks to be hard work though, maybe go UFS or similar, as mentioned above.

K