Help with cloning external DVR drive
I'm trying to copy the content from an external eSATA drive connected to my Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD cable box as it's getting full faster than I'd like. I have a larger SATA hard drive in a similar configuration as the original unit. I've disconnected from the cable box and attached both to my SATA controller card (non-RAID configuration). The problem is that when I open Acronis True Image Home and choose the Clone disk option, it shows both the existing drive and new drive as "unallocated" and it won't let me do anything with it. How do I get my computer to recognize the original drive without formatting, etc? I don't want to lose the content on the drive.
The cable box uses some sort of encryption so that one cannot unplug an external drive and plug it in to a computer and access the files (shows/movies/etc). It also seems to marry the external drive to the cable box so I cannot just switch external drives when the first gets full and switch back when I want to view the older content. The cable box wants to make the new drive it's designated drive. When it does this, the original drive becomes unusable on the cable box (I found this out the hard way on another cablebox / HD expander setup).
Once I've created a clone of the original drive, I want to format it and use it for something else. I merely want to increase the amount of storage space without losing the previously recorded content.
Any ideas? Thanks!
It's worth a try... Thanks! I'll let you know what happens.
I was able to make a copy of the drive using Disk Copy 2.3 (a free utility). I did a sector by sector copy as suggested. It took about 6 hours to do. I then plugged it in to the DVR and it was accepted just as if it was the original...right down to the partition size! So even though the new drive was larger, the DVR still saw it as the old size that the original was. :-(
I've been trying some partition creation / resizing programs, but I have yet to find one that recognizes the data on the drive. They all see it as "unallocated" just the same as Acronis.
Glad you at least got the copy part done. For the partition problem, try the free Partition Wizard - the bootable CD version.
Gave Partition Wizard (Bootable) a try but it didn't work. Same results - shows disk as unallocated. I need to find a partition program that recognizes the SARA OS that the DVR uses....