Dave's place

On occasion a clients case has severe blocks of bad sectors that the hard drive requires to be cloned. The cloning process basically copies all the good blocks of data and ignores the bad blocks on to another separate usable drive. Its a bit more complicated than that in real life, but thats the general idea in a nutshell.

Anyway, I have a case ongoing currently, and its taking its sweet time over being cloned. Its clicking and making scratching noises, generally sounding terrible, you get the idea. The drive has already checked out that physically its OK. The read/write heads are still all working even though there is a lot of slow down (Hence the need to clone). The firmware modules all checked out during the SA  check. A backup of the firmware was also made both to a profile directory and to DB using composite reading from all the available heads.

So in all- this has been a slow case to get going.

Once this clone is ready there shouldn’t be any major delays. The OS is Windows XP hence at least one NTFS partition. This is nice after a long running cloner like this. Hoping with crossed fingers that I can get the clone completed before needing to replace the head stack. There is a possibility that one read/write head maybe failing. Luckily I have real time monitoring of the cloned regions. Any indication of platter damage or catastrophic head failure will be easy to spot. So far ALL GREEN

Veeam says the answer is more tools – but then it would, wouldn’t it

By Maxwell Cooter | Techworld
Published: 18:02 GMT, 27 September 10

World’s fastest SD card becomes flagship of its SD memory cards line-up

Berlin, Germany, September 2 — Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502), a leading innovator in NAND flash memory technologies and solutions, today announced the launch of 8 gigabyte (GB), 16GB and 32GB SDHC UHS-I Cards, all compliant with the SD Memory Card Standard Ver. 3.0 (SD 3.0), UHS 104, that deliver the world’s fastest^[1] data read and write speeds^[2]. Toshiba also extended its industry leadership in memory card solutions by unveiling the world’s first microSDHC UHS-I Cards delivering 4GB, 8GB and16GB capacities.

Mass production of the new SDHC UHS-I Cards and sample shipments of the new microSDHC UHS-I Cards will start this November.

The new SDHC UHS-I Cards are the world’s first memory cards compliant with SD 3.0, UHS104, and introduce a new level of ultra-fast read and write speeds to NAND flash based memory cards: a maximum read speed of 95MB per sec, and a write speed of 80MB per sec.

The new microSDHC UHS-I Cards are the world’s first microSDHC memory cards compliant with SD 3.0, UHS50, and they also offer the world’s fastest read and write speeds in their class: a maximum read speed of 40MB per sec and a write speed of 20MB per sec.

Image shooting and sharing applications continue to grow in popularity, spurring demand for storage devices and applications that can capture high quality images and videos. The new SD 3.0 specifications meet strong demand in the SD card market and combine increased data capacity with the fast data transfer rates essential for such applications as burst shooting with digital single lens reflex cameras and other advanced digital still cameras, HD digital camcorders, and high speed transfers of data between hardware.

The high level specs and wide range of cards announced by Toshiba will support developers in bringing exciting applications to future generations of consumer products. By further enhancing its SD Memory Card line-ups with products offering larger capacities and higher data transfer speeds, Toshiba will continue to meet market demand, and to lead the NAND flash memory market.

The expanded new card series will be featured at the IFA 2010, in Berlin, Germany from September 3, and PHOTOKINA 2010, in Koln, Germany.

Note:

[1]

As of September 2, 2010.

[2]

Maximum read and write speed may vary depending on the host device, read and write conditions, and file size.

Outline of New SD Memory Cards

1. SDHC UHS-I Cards

2. microSDHC UHS-I Cards

Note: Product names above are for the Japanese market.

Key Features

1. SDHC UHS-I Cards (32GB, 16GB, 8GB)

(1)

Supports UHS104, a new ultra high speed SD interface, and the highest standard in the new SD 3.0, which provides 104MB per sec. bus speed on the SD interface. It realizes a maximum read speed of 95MB per sec and a write speed of 80MB per sec.

(2)

Provides the conventional SD interfaces—3.3V signal voltage for the DS mode (SD clock 25MHz and 12.5MB per sec) and the HS mode (SD clock 50MHz and 25MB per sec)—and is interoperable with existing SDHC host devices compliant with the SD Memory Card Standard Ver. 2.0 (SD 2.0).

(3)

Integrates highly secure CPRM copy protection technology.

2. microSDHC UHS-I Cards (16GB, 8GB, 4GB)

(1)

Supports UHS50, a new ultra high speed SD interface compliant with the new SD 3.0, which provides 50MB per sec. bus speed on the SD interface. It realizes a maximum read speed of 40MB per sec and a write speed of 20MB per sec, the fastest speed yet achieved in the microSD industry.

(2)

Provides the conventional SD interfaces—3.3V signal voltage for the DS mode (SD clock 25MHz and 12.5MB per sec) and the HS mode (SD clock 50MHz and 25MB per sec)—and is interoperable with existing microSDHC host devices compliant with the SD 2.0.

(3)

Compliant with DDR 50 (SD Clock 50MHz), with double the bus transfer rate (50MB/s) comparing with the existing HS mode at the same SD clock frequency.

(4)

Integrates highly secure CPRM copy protection technology.

Specifications

1. SDHC UHS-I Cards

2. microSDHC UHS-I Cards

Note: Product names above are for the Japanese market.

For further information about Toshiba’s memory card solutions, please visit
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/p-media/english/index.htm

Seagate’s Momentus Laptop Hard Drive Earns FIPS 140-2 Certification, Clearing Way for Deployment of Drives by All U.S. Government Agencies and Regulated Industries such as Healthcare, Defense and Finance.

September 14, 2010, seagate announced that its groundbreaking Momentus ® Self-Encrypting Drive, the world’s first laptop hard drive with built-in encryption to protect against unauthorized access to information on lost or stolen mobile computers, has secured FIPS 140-2 certification from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

The key government certification clears the way for deployments of Momentus Self-Encrypting Drives (SEDs) by all U.S. and Canadian federal agencies, many state and local governments, and regulated industries such as healthcare, finance and defense required to use FIPS-certified gear to help protect sensitive data on PCs and computer networks. Many utility, education and transportation entities also have adopted the FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) 140-2 standard to lock down confidential information. Foreign governments in addition to Canada also recognize FIPS-validated products. The Momentus SED is the first hard drive with native encryption to earn the FIPS certification.

“The FIPS 140-2 certification exemplifies Seagate’s commitment to security standards that enable the widespread adoption of encrypting hard drives for laptops and other computers as the explosive growth of laptop PCs puts more sensitive personal and business information at risk, today’s NIST approval gives our system builder and end-user customers the peace of mind that Momentus ® Self-Encrypting Drives deliver the full power of government-grade security.” – said Dave Mosley, executive vice president of Sales, Marketing and Product Line Management at Seagate.

The FIPS 140-2 seal of approval comes three years after NIST, the federal agency focused on promoting product innovation by establishing technical standards for government and business, certified the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) chip built into the Momentus drive. Seagate has shipped more than a million of its self-encrypting laptop drives since their introduction in 2006.

See Seagate’s FIPS 140-2 certificate here: http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/140crt/140crt1388.pdf .

More information on NIST and FIPS 140-2 is available on the NIST website:
http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/index.html

Seagate® Momentus® hard drives deliver high capacity and performance along with innovative technology, such as self-encryption and free-fall sensors. If you require feature-rich, reliable, robust and secure laptop storage, Momentus drives are for you.

More details: Seagate’s self-encryption Momentus Laptop hard drive

Samsung Auto Backup is Bundled software that performs a backup of the PC data to Samsung External Hard Drives. Through the Real-Time Backup or Scheduled Backup features, the data can be backed up safely to Samsung External Hard Drives.

When the backed up data is damaged due to a system error or user’s mistake, they can be checked/recover through the Integrity Check procedure. Also the original data that was stored in the PC can be conveniently recovered when damaged or lost.

※ Caution : The Samsung Auto Backup program operates only with a Samsung External Hard Drive.

Download Samsung Auto Backup software

Acronis True Image WD Edition Software helps you to completely clone your current system hard drive onto your new WD hard drive. Cloning makes an exact copy of your operating system, applications, data, preferences, and email settings. Everything will be present and operate exactly as it did on your old hard drive. Acronis True Image WD Edition now supports WD Advanced Format Drives and ensures that all partitions are optimally aligned.

Acronis True Image WD Edition Software Key Features:

• Drive Cloning – Copies the source drive to a new WD drive, leaving all data on the source drive.
• Drive Migration – Erase the source drive after the new WD drive has been imaged.
• Drive Image Backup – The long-term usage of the Drive Kit software will be to provide full drive image backups of a source drive at any time. Backup drive images will be stored as a file, which can be copied to any direct attached drive, network attached storage drive or optical media (CD/DVD).
• Drive Deployment – Enables users to prepare a WD drive so that selected folders or partitions can be excluded from the destination image.
• Drive Image Recovery – The Recovery Manager enables users to restore a drive image from a direct or network attached drive. The Recovery Manager can also either erase just a portion of the drive to be used for the restored drive image, or all of the previous OS.
• Create a Bootable Standalone Recovery Manager – With the Drive Kit software, users can create a bootable ISO image file, which contains the WD Drive Kit Standalone Recovery Manager software.
• Recover a Drive Image from the Bootable Recovery Manager Software – The bootable Standalone Recovery Manager enables users to recover a drive image from either a CD/DVD drive, a direct attached drive, or a network attached drive.

Download Acronis True Image WD Edition Software