Software General FAQ
1. What is the difference between the Hard Drive Upgrader and the Clone-n-Recover?
2. Can I take the IDE hard drive out of an Apple Mac and clone it to a new drive on a PC?
4. I am not sure which of your products I want to order and need some input.
5. I need some input about your licensing arrangement.
8. Do you have a bundle with both Hard Drive Upgrader and Clone-n-Recover?
14.Does your software hard drive Upgrader/Clone-n-Recover works with USB/IDE external drive products?
15. Does your software copy Linux system data?
1Q: What is the difference between the Hard Drive Upgrader and the Clone-n-Recover?
A: The clone product is mainly for backup purpose. It duplicates the drive exactly (byte by byte, sector by sector, or an mirror image) without expanding any partition. Any extra space on the new drive will be left unused. It works on all PC-based or non-PC-based partition types. For certain hard drive usage (embedded, proprietary, certain boot management software, etc), this may be the only way to copy the disk.
On the
other hand, the Upgrader is mostly used for one-time PC-based hard drive upgrade
by utilizing the full space of the new drive. It will expand FAT16/32 type
partitions but copy non-FAT partitions as is without expansion. It also allows
FAT16 to FAT32 conversion. For FAT type partitions, it only copies those sectors
that are actually used and is much faster than the clone product in most cases.
It still can be used as a backup, especially for Microsoft/PC-based OS without
separate diagnostic/boot management partition.
2Q: Can I take the IDE hard drive out of an Apple Mac and clone it to a new drive on a PC? What I was thinking about doing was taking the IDE Hard Drive out of the Mac placing it in the PC as the master. I realize the PC wouldn't boot on it. I could boot from a floppy though as long as the program was there. Put the new drive in set it up as a slave to do the cloning. I have Disk Pro but I don't know if it would do it for me.
A: If you have the
DiskPro Clone-n-Recover software, you should be able to do the cloning this way.
There is no guarantee that the new drive will boot though when you put it back
to the Mac especially when the new drive is not identical to the old.
If you have Hard Drive Upgrader software, you may not be able to copy the drive
at all since it may not recognize how Mac formats the hard drive.
A: DiskPro can copy
either way. You can specify which to be the source and which to be the target.
In most cases, you want to set up your new drive to be the target as the boot
device, if that is what you want eventually. Setting the new drive as the boot
device allows you to check compatibility between the hard drive and the system.
4Q: I am not sure which of your products I want to order and need some input. We are system integrators and have need for a product that will copy a complete hard drive to a second hard drive, generally when upgrades are done. Typically, the old drive is in the system as drive C: and the new drive is D:.
A: When you say
"copy a complete hard drive to a second hard drive," do you intend the
2nd hard drive to be used as a backup in case there is problem upgrading the old
drive? Or do you intend the 2nd hard drive to be upgraded and used as a new
drive C:? If you answer yes to the first question, the Clone-n-Recover product
should be the choice. If you say yes to the second question, the Hard Drive
Upgrader should be the choice. See the purchase guide for more details.
5Q: I need some input about your licensing arrangement. We are system integrators and need to copy one drive at a time, but the software will be used as a utility. In other words, it will be used on different machines for our clients at different times. What do we need?
A: We have both the
DiskPro Clone-n-Recover (Product # SFDPCR) and Hard Drive Upgrader (SFUPG or
SFUPG_E) listed on our order form, but their licence is intended for personal
use and not for commercial purpose. We also offer Hard Drive Upgrader Deluxe (SFUPG_DLX)
which combines both the Clone-n-Recover and the Upgrader in one package with
other utilities. It offers unlimited PC site license for commercial use.
6Q: I cloned a SCSI Novell 4.1 hard drive. The cloned SCSI copy boots but the SYS volume does not load. Any ideas? The NLMs load and if I do a fdisk on the Dos partition, it show the 10% Dos partition with the 90% non-dos partition.
A: Did you receive a
message like "Volume SYS could NOT be mounted, some or all volume segments
cannot be located"?
You can "load install.nlm" at the Novell prompt to check the partition
information.
You can also select DiskPro menu option 8 or 28 to list the partition info.
Compare both partition info.
Several possible
causes are listed below:
1. Novell disk driver may not be compatible with the new drive.
2. Hard drive LBA translation may be incorrect.
-> Set up BIOS to recognize correct hard drive translation
-> Run DiskPro option 24 to change CHS translation
3. New hard drive incompatibility with the SCSI adapter:
-> change daisy-chain sequence
-> adjust SCSI termination properly
-> etc.
A: In this case the
Clone-n-Recover is preferred.
8Q: Do you have a bundle with both Hard Drive Upgrader and Clone-n-Recover?
A: Yes, Either Hard Drive Upgrader Professional or Deluxe is a bundle of both Upgrader and Clone-n-Recover. Professional Version comes with one PC site license, but unlimited commercial use. Deluxe Version comes with multiple PC and multiple user, commercial use is OK.( see our purchase guide and license for more details). When running the software, from the main manu, choose option 1 and 2 to play the function of Upgrader, choose 11 or 12 to play the function of Clone-n-Recover.
A: You
can order directly from our web site. Yes, you can pay with
credit card. Sure, there is no problem that we send the "full-version"
via E-mail. Just check "Delivery over email" in the shipping method.
A: If you use
Clone-n-Recover to clone the drive, it will duplicate the whole drive whether
there is data on it or not. In general, the average transfer rate is about 60MB
to 120MB per minute, depending on the hardware configuration and hard drive
speed. So to clone a 4GB drive, it takes about 30 to 60 minutes. If you use Hard
Drive Upgrader to copy a FAT16/32 drive, it will only copy the actual data on
it. The average data transfer rate is somewhat lower than Clone-n-Recover due to
additional overhead involved in finding where the data is located. It tends to
be faster than Clone-n-Recover if the data is not very full. In this case, it
takes about 5 to 15 minutes to copy 500MB of data.
A: The side FURTHER AWAY from the power connector should be aligned with the red stripe (pin 1) on the IDE ribbon cable. Note that after you connect the plug to the 2.5" hard drive, if you place the combination on a flat level surface, the drive should sit level and not on an angle. If you face the plug, pin 1 should be on your right hand side, while the power connector should be on your left-hand side.
A: Our software uses a
second hard drive as the target media. It's a clone of the original hard drive
and can be used just as if it's the original. The use of the 2nd hard drive
poses no great inconveinece to the desktop but may requires more work on the
laptop as the laptop does not normally provide access to allow 2nd hard drive
connection.
This approach may or
may not be what you intended. If it's acceptable, the product "Hard Drive
Upgrader, Personal Edition" (SFUPG) may be what you need. The target drive
can be larger. In case of a system crash (with hard drive OK), you can reverse
clone from the 2nd drive back to the original drive, or you can simply swap two
drives. If the original drive becomes bad, you simply swap the drive and you're
back to business.
For your info, below
is the comparison of our two products:
The clone product (SFDPCR) is mainly for backup purpose. It duplicates the drive
exactly (byte by byte, sector by sector, or an mirror image) without expanding
any partition. Any extra space on the new drive
will be left unused. It works on all PC-based or non-PC-based partition types.
For certain hard drive usage (embedded, proprietary, certain boot management
software, etc), this may be the only way to copy the disk.
On the other hand, the Upgrader (SFUPG) is mostly used for one-time PC-based
hard drive upgrade by utilizing the full space of the new drive. It will expand
FAT16/32 type partitions but copy non-FAT partitions as is without expansion. It
also allows FAT16 to FAT32 conversion. For FAT type partitions, it only copies
those sectors that are actually used and is much faster than the clone product
in most
cases. It still can be used as a backup, especially for Microsoft/PC-based OS
without separate diagnostic/boot management partition.
A:I think the Upgrader product would be the choice in
your case. But since you're installing the new hard drive on another computer,
please read the following caution.
The Upgrader copies not just the data but also system information (e.g.,
config.sys, autoexec.bat, driver files, INI files, etc) to the new hard drive.
This system info stays the same on the original computer. Therefore, the
Upgrader is normally intended for upgrading the hard drive on the SAME computer.
When you're installing the new hard drive on a different computer, the system
info (from the original computer) on the new hard drive may or may not match the
new computer. For example, your new computer may have a different video
controller card, sound card, etc. This can cause the system not to boot up
correctly especially with Win
14Q:
Does your software hard drive Upgrader/ Clone-n-RecoverI(s) work with USB/IDE
external drive products?
What we found is that
if we boot up the system to Win98 and then run Upgrader or Clone-n-Recover from
the Command prompt window, we can still copy the internal hard drive to the USB/IDE
hard drive. We then shut down the Window (here, more files are updated on the
internal drive but not reflected on the USB drive), install the USB hard drive
as internal and reboot. It would complain about system not being shut down
previously and SCANDISK is performed. But after that, it seems to work properly.
15Q: Does your software copy linux system data?
Unfortunately, there is no
direct way to achieve the task with either of our products. However, with a
little bit of work, you may be able to accomplish your goal to a larger degree
in the following two ways:
1. Use Clone-n-Recover to mirror the drive. You keep thedual-boot ability. To
claim the unused space at the end of the new drive, you use FDISK or any
partitioning software to add one or more extra partitions. You then format them
and use as extra space. A new drive letter may be involved in the case of
Win9x/DOS.
2. Use Upgrader to copy and expand the drive. Keep in mind that only Win9x
(FAT32) partition is enlarged, while the Linux partition stays the same. To
restore the dual-boot capability, you need to perform the following (based on
Red
Hat Linux):
A. Linux allows you to boot from a Linux boot diskette and continue onto the
main hard drive. So first you need to create a bootable Linux diskette from your
original system. See your installation manual for detail.
B. Boot from the diskette with the NEW hard drive in place (already cloned). At
the boot: prompt, type something like "linux single root=/dev/hdXX initrd="
where XX in /dev/hdXX is your root partition.
C. Once you boot into your new hard drive, go to /sbin or wherever LILO (your
dual-boot loader) is located. Simply run lilo which will re-establish your
dual-boot capability.
D. Shutdown and reboot from the new hard drive.
This works for Red Hat Linux 5.2. Don't know about Corel
Linux. The trick is to be able somehow to boot up Linux with
lilo command available. Then run lilo to restore the dual
boot capability.
Thank you for your purchase. I
assume you still can run your system on the old 3.2 GB drive with some space
left, say 1MB or more. First, you need to make a bootable floppy if you don't
have one yet. I suppose you can follow "My computer" -> "A:
drive" -> format -> "copy system files"steps to make one.
Assuming you have our Upgrader download (310.exe) on this computer, find or
create an empty folder (directory) and copy the download file (310.exe) to this
folder and run it. It would unzip itself and create multiple installation files.
Copy these files to the bootable floppy created above. Among the files are
USER.DOC and USER.TXT which contains detailed instruction on how to use the
Upgrader.
You might want to read the user's guide first before proceeding.
To summarize it, you need to have both hard drives installed and then reboot
with the floppy. Run Upgrader.exe and follow the instruction on screen to copy
the drive. Depending on your system's configuration, if you have two separate
IDE
channels, you may be able to connect each hard drive via its own cable to its
own channel without changing the jumper settings on the drives. If you have only
one IDE channel, then both drives have to share the same channel on the same
cable. The jumper settings would have to be arranged so that one drive is MASTER
and the other SLAVE. You probably want to check with your PC and/or hard drive
vendor for additional information.