DeviceImage Tools

[roti]

Hi!

We have some machine, which is protected by a PCI hardware card named Magic Card Extra by http://www.rogev.com/products/extra.htm.
This card can separate partitions from each other (I think by modifying the partition tables's id on the fly).
The card has a built in disk copy function, which we had used with success. But now, we would like to use another method to clone. Here comes zsplit:
I made a splitted image to fat32 from an usb attached mobile rack
zsplit -s 2G -o /mnt/win_e -N 300 -d /dev/sda
then I restored it, to another disk:
unzsplit -D /dev/sda -i /mnt/win_e -d 300
The logfile showed that it is OK.

Putting this clone disk to a machine with the Magic card, and starting any operating system from the card's menu, it will give the well known error message:
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

Is there a way to clone the disk bit by bit?

Thanx
Roti

[jurij]

Hi Roti,

After some considerations about possible error situations in your case I can see here following issues which can cause this failure:

1. The method of copying which zsplit uses is the “byte by byte�-method, only this method can produce an image of hard disc. Therefore we should search for a possible cause of this error on the side of this PCI-Card or in the logical assignment of the device.

2. The error message “DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER� says that the MBR (master boot record) cannot be found. The system cannot find bootable device.

3. You should be sure that the cloned disk is recognized with the same device name (/dev/sda) as the device from which the image has been done before, it is very important in case of cloned bootable devices.

4. Also is important to know if the bootable device in BIOS is the same, the BIOS should also know where to search for a MBR.

5. As I can see from the docu for your PCI-Card there is a “VxD driver� which is installed in the MBR so may be you should try following: “The VxD driver is not installed properly, or it is set to run in 16-bit mode.To solve this, select the checkbox in Update Boot Code in Hard Disk MBR in system parameters in the system menu.�

6. The next possibility: “initialization mode of Magic Card is incorrect. Modes 1 to 4 are lined as per functional intensifying and compatibility lowering in turn. For ISA edition, switching among these 4 kinds of initialization modes can adjust address of ROM. Addresses corresponding to initialization mode 1/2/3/4 are D000H/C800H/D400H/D800H. For PCI and LAN edition, adjust jumpers or execute SETPCI.COM or press Alt+1/2/3/4 key after the completion of initialization of memory and hard disk. For example, you can press both Alt and 1 key to set compatibility of Magic Card with ASUS motherboard.�

I hope this information will help you to resolve this boot problem.

Regards,
Jurij

[Roti]

HI!

It was the BIOS settings...
I made the oldschool fault: forgot to set the HD as a boot device.
So it is working now.

Thanx Jurij!


Roti