Fat32

Did you know that?
Windows format tool can only format a drive using the Fat32 if the drive is 32GB or smaller.

And so to format a drive larger than 32GB, I download a FAT32 format tool:
http://www.pendriveapps.com/format-fat32-larger-than-32gb/

And it actually works. ^-^

ISO Burner

Will try to use CD instead of the USB Clonezilla Live. since my colleague tried it years ago, using CD might work.

However....

I'm getting an error when I tried to burn the Clonezilla iso image to the CD using FreeISOBurner

Failed to write ISO image. Error Hardware Error 14848

So I tried to research and found this solution.
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Windows-XP-3282/2009/10/windows-xp-zip-backup-1.htm

I downloaded ISO Recorder for Windows 7:
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/W7.htm

And just follow this steps to burn the image.
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/HowTo.htm

How to Clone Drive using Clonezilla?

1) First create the bootable USB or CD for your Clonezilla.

2) Make sure that you change the BIOS boot up sequence. I inserted the bootable USB and the 320GB USB External drive. Upon bootup, it didn't recognize the bootable USB. I change the BIOS sequence and there goes my problem.

3) The steps are pretty straight forward, so it's really easy to understand. I just follow this steps:

However, my problem is that it's taking a whole day to do the cloning. Literally whole day, more than 24hrs to complete the process. And I haven't done the restoring yet. :(

How to Create a Bootable USB for Clonezilla?

I encountered issue with the Ghost4Linux, because I can clone the drive but I cannot restore it. So I will try next is Clonezilla. Hopefully, once there's available machine I would be successful on it.

First step to create a bootable USB for Clonezilla

How to Install Clonezilla on a USB Flash Drive from Windows

1. Download the Official Clonezilla Live Zip file for USB
2. Extract the contents of the Clonezilla Live Zip to your USB Flash Drive
3. From the USB Flash Drive, navigate to utils\win32 and run makeboot.bat
4. Restart your computer setting your BIOS or Boot menu to Boot from USB and then boot from your Clonezilla USB

USB is recognized but not seen in My Computer

Okay now I'm in trouble, I borrowed a 320GB USB from a colleague so I could clone a 250GB server. I was on the process of cloning the drive but cancelled it because I haven't formatted the USB yet. But when I inserted the USB back to my laptop. It was detected but it's not recognize or seen in My Computer.

This problem occurs mainly when windows XP fails to allocate a drive letter to your portable drive(pen drive). It occurs mostly with new pen drives connected to your computer for the first time. If you face such problem then it may not be the pen drive’s fault, rather it may be windows trouble.
Fix:

You can fix this issue by following some simple steps given below.

    Click Start, click Run, type compmgmt.msc, and then click OK.
    In the console tree, click Disk Management. The Disk Management window will appear.
    On this disk management window, you can see some drives including the portable drive. Right click on your portable drive and click change drive letter and paths.
    Now a assign a new drive letter which is not being used by any of your drives in My Computer.
    After assigning the new drive letter your portable drive will show up in my computer with other drives

I continued with the Cloning of the Device, but I hope that I could still restore my colleague's USB back to its original state.

How to Create a Bootable USB for Ghost4Linux?

I need to clone a Linux server and need to test it. I found Norton Ghost, Clonezilla and Ghost4Linux. Need to test first the Ghost4Linux. Since the server doesn’t have a CD-drive, I need to make a bootable disk. I found a nice read on how to make a bootable USB for Ghost4Linux (G4L):

Thanks to jamesawooten -

The following process works: assume we have an empty usb stick, if not, we need about 55mb

- assume under windows the usb stick is drive F: 

( If your usb stick is another drive or device then adjust the guide below) 

1. download G4L ISO from http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l 

2. download latest syslinux-X.XX.zip from http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/ 

3. insert your usb stick 

4. make a directory called "boot" on the usb stick (i.e. F:\boot) 

5. extract all the files from downloaded G4L ISO (use 7-zip to extract the ISO)and place them into the "boot" directory on the usb stick 

6. in the "boot" directory rename syslinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg.old 

7. in the "boot" directory copy isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg 

8. from the "boot" directory copy syslinux.cfg to the root of the usb stick (F:)

9. edit syslinux.cfg in the root directory, you now need to add "boot/" before each line that points to a file 

   a. DEFAULT vesamenu.c32 to DEFAULT boot/vesamenu.c32 

   b. MENU BACKGROUND test.png to MENU BACKGROUND boot/test.png 

   c. KERNEL bzImage6 to KERNEL boot/bzImage6 

   d. APPEND initrd=ramdisk.gz.... to APPEND initrd=boot/ramdisk.gz.... 

   e. do this for all KERNEL lines and all APPEND lines just add boot/ dont change what is there already, till you reach the last line 

   f. ONTIMEOUT bz26.5 and change that to ONTIMEOUT boot/bz26.5 

10. extract the syslinux-X.XX.zip you downloaded 

11. Using a cmd window, go into the win32 directory of the extracted file 

12. execute the following command: syslinux.exe -m -a -d /boot F: 

13. and that is it, you now have a bootable USB stick with G4L on it

I plan to follow this exactly as instructed to create a bootable USB Ghost4Linux. 

Up next is how to back up the Linux server using Ghost4Linux. But before that, I'll finish first creating the bootable USB.

I encountered problem with step 12: After executing the command: I got this error:

D:\References\Ghost4Linux\syslinux-4.04\win32>syslinux.exe -m -a -d /boot F:
Accessing physical drive: Access is denied.
Did not successfully update the MBR; continuing...

According to some research:
I followed this:
You need an Administrator command line window even if you are a member of the administrator group. Make sure you hit Ctrl+Shift+Enter instead of just Enter after typing cmd.

You'll notice the Administrator at the upper left corner of the cmd window. As you can see it successfully execute the command.

I just hope that the disk would work. (fingers-crossed)! Goodluck!

First Project: Video Surveillance Integration to Storage

I've been studying the Server - Client applications. But so far I haven't progressed in any testing. I was able to successfully install in the FMS server the software and activate the license. But that's it. I need to integrate this with our storage product.

I encountered several troubles such as:
1. Installing the Windows
 - The Server doesn't have a CD ROM and I only have a CD. And so I need a USB ODD (USB Optical Disk Drive) or in slightly layman's term - CD Enclosure.
 - Then at last, I was able to install it after days of waiting for an available External CD Drive.

2. Installing the Software
 - I only have an iso file, and I'm not sure how to use it. Thanks to John. I learned that there is such thing us Virtual CD rom. I only need to mount the drive to the designated iso file. Then, thankfully it worked!

3. Activating the License
 - The license for the software was not working. It's activated but it won't work. Good thing it's a known issue where it can happen if the active NIC upon the first start of the server admin are not all active. They reset the license and I was able to activate it.

4. Installing the 10Gig E card / Installing the Driver
 - It's hard to carry the server, I don't know how much it weighs but it's really heavy. So I ask the help of my officemate. Thanks to him.
  - Thanks again to google I was able to download the Myricom 10Gig Ethernet driver.

5. Connection
 - Since it's a 10Gig ethernet, we used a fibre cable and connect it to the switch. Then just used the next available IP address.

And now the real problem begins, what's next?

Good thing my lead on this project knows what to do. However, he was so used to doing it solo. And now he just told me he started the testing. Hopefully, he'll show me how and teach it to me.