gamefixer

Good to know, thanks Jaclaz.

Source and destination are Win7 Enterprise. One might be 32 and the other 64 but I wouldn't think that would matter. The connection scenario is as you described. I dont know the make model of the adapter but will check tomorrow and it has its own brick.

So I'm working on consolidating some data on several small drives to one 2 gig drive. One of the machines that I need to pull the data from has to stay on so I cant turn it off and plug this drive into a SATA port on the mother board. My plan was to use a USB --> SATA adapter.... Sounds simple enough. Well, I end up filling about 40% of the drive with machine #1 (connected to the system's mobo). I powered that machine down, connected the drive to the USB adapter, plug the USB into the machine I cant turn off (machine #2) and.... NOTHING! I go to Device Manager --> Disk Management to find that the drive is there but in RAW format not NTFS???? So I put the drive back in the other computer (computer #1) and its fine. Is there something about large drives and these USB things that I'm not aware of? I've used this thing for years with 2.5 and 3.5" PATA drives and its never done this. The drive in question is a Seagate ST2000D. Thanks for the help or any info.

Yeah, those apps dont sound like what he was talking about. I forgot to mention that the IBM app comes on a non copyable flash drive that has to be mounted after the OS boots. I'm hoping that he get back to me later today.

A friend of mine told me about a software tool that he bought from Japan that is capable of scanning/editing files on a hard drive no matter what the format is. He said that he used the tool in Linux (after booting from a Live CD) but he doesn't remember the name of the tool. Only thing he can remember is that when the tool loads it puts up an IBM splash screen. Anyone ever hear of anything like that? Thanks for your time.

Thank you for pointing me towards another cloning utility, I will be giving this one a shot tomorrow as well as PING. However, I'm still curious as to wether or not theres such a thing as an embedded file that cant be copied?

So I've got a small PATA HD that I'm trying to clone. Everything I've tried ends up with a non working backup. Some one told me today that "there is a inaccessible embed file" that makes cloning impossible. If its inaccessible then how does the system read that file in the first place? Was hoping that some one smarter then me could chime in as to whether or not this is possible. Thanks all.

All, thanks for the replies. I can confirm that the lack of being able to use a copied drive has nothing to do with Firmware. I was able to discover that the firmware on the factory drive is in fact common. A few of you seem to think that I'm doing this for nefarious reasons, couldn't be farther from the truth. What ever happened to us being entitled to backups of software that we've purchased? Guess thats out the door??? If the manufacture of this machine was so worried about us (the owners of the machine) making bootleg copies why would they supply a restore DVD with the system? With the older versions of DDR they (Konami) did have some problems with bootlegging so I get their reasons for high security. Not only does this newer game have some sort of lock on the hard drive but there are also two (not one like most of our games) security dongles on the CPU. I think they have this thing pretty well locked down. If the replacement fee was reasonable (say in the $250 range) I wouldn't have a problem paying that. Its the $1000.00 for a hard drive that I find to be a joke. Almost all of the games we own now run off of some kind of mass storage. These games are the only ones that have proven themselves difficult to service in the field. Over the years I think I've had to replace close to 50 drives. Thats a lot of money for a bunch of hard drives.

OK, about the "fine line." The manufacture provides us with a restore disc in case the HD fails. Problem is that the restore disc will only write to the drive in the game. I've tried identical drives that didnt work which is why I'm guessing that the firmware is modified. The manufacture will not sell us a blank drive only a pre-programmed drive for $1000.00. The working drive in the machine is a Maxtor 6K040L0 and so are the spares that I'm trying to copy and write the restore image too. I've tried a standalone hard drive duplicator that I have (have used it for years on other games and its worked fine). I've tried duplication software on a WinXP/Win7 machine. I've tried duplication software on Mac OSX 10.6 and 10.7. The drives will duplicate but it will NOT boot in the machine. Oh, if it helps any the PS2 in the game is a Japanese model. This isn't a MAME thing or any sort of multigame emulator. Its an arcade version Konami Dance Dance Revolution Super Nova. Thanks again for the help.

Does one even exist? I see a lot of flashing utilities that contain the new firmware for XXX drive but not just a stand alone reading/saving/writing utility anywhere. Heres my issue... I work in the arcade coin operated industry. As I'm sure some of you are aware a lot of newer games use computers or computer hardware in them. About 90% of said games are easily serviced by us in the field. There are a few holdouts though... Konami's DDR Super Nova is one of them. It uses a Play Station 2 with a hard drive (40 gig Maxtor) as its CPU. When the drive fails I have to pay almost $1000.00 to get a replacement. I'm CONVINCED that the software is tied to a particular modified firmware on the hard drives because all efforts to copy the drive or burn the software to a new drive has failed. I have a working DDR Super Nova and 2 identical Maxtors that I want to experiment with. Thanks in advance for any help. Matt