Backup a PS4 extended storage devie, with not even a partition table

[Anonymous]

Hello,

as subject states, I have a PS4 extended storage device that does work on the system it's self, but I was attemping to back it up in case it gets lost, damged, or malfunctions so i wouldn't have to re-downloaded 100's of gbs of data. When checking how it's formatted on pc, on linux using KDE Partition Manager, the device is shown, but no partition are found on it. The properties show the partition table as -- which I believe it means not found. In clonezilla it shows the device as /dev/sdd Unrecognized disk label name, No input device found.

I don't know how the PS4 even does this technically, because from what i've understood, data has to be held on partition, without one I wouldn't have thought that data could even be written but I suppose it can if the PS4 does it.

Is there a way to just perform a 1:1 copy of the whole disk, so that in the future when this drive fails, I can just restore to another?

Thank you

[Steven Shiau]

I believe you can use "dd" to do that, although it's sector-by-sector and not efficient.

Steven

[Anonymous]

I think that would work, but as you said it is inefficient. I like how clonezilla performs it, potential of compression, and splitting the files up in multiple parts, say 4GB. Makes it easier on further backups, as well as it being done in a live environment, the speeds are further inreased because there are not hidden background services and such eating ram and cpu.

Since dd does seem like it would work just fine manually, do you know why Clonezilla wouldn't? Clonezilla uses dd as a method of backup, so I wouldn't see why it wouldn't work.

Are there any other tools, similar to Clonezilla that would, or specifically designed for this use case?

[Jeremy Boden]

You can use dd to read a disk as a stream, compress and output to a disk file. If you can't have large disk files, you can use split to output to multiple files.

Clonezilla would use dd on unrecognisable partitions - but if a disk format is unrecognisable, it doesn't even know where the data is.

[Steven Shiau]

There is a workaround for you. Although in TUI you have no chance to choose /dev/sda when using saveparts or restoreparts, yet you can force to run that in the command line prompt.
We improved Clonezilla with an option -sspt or --skip-save-part-table for ocs-sr. It's available in Clonezilla live >= 2.7.2-9 or 20210309-*:
https://clonezilla.org/downloads.php

That allows you to save and restore a whole disk without any partition by dd.
E.g.,
save: ocs-sr -q2 -c -j2 -sspt -z9p -i 4096 -sfsck -senc -p
choose saveparts my-img sda
restore: ocs-sr -e1 auto -e2 -t -r -j2 -c -k -scr -p choose -f
sda restoreparts my-img sda

Please give it a try and let us know the results. Thanks.

Steven

[Anonymous]

First, I'd like to mention that I performed a successful backup/restore with dd manually.

I had put the testing-groovy dated today on my usb, when booting to ram as I usually do it resulted in a kernel panic, so I had to use its very 1st option just to normally boot.

I am very familiar with bash shell in linux, but never used the command line in Clonezilla for its own task, and when enter your e.g it just resulted in a help list of commands, as if i issued something like --help, even after reviewing I couldn't seem to get what I was supposed to enter, to start the backup as I don't want to accidentally write to the wrong drive, I didn't bother doing things like manually mounting the drive as I didn't think I was supposed to, just plugged them both in and ran command.

Can this option (-sspt) also be put under the advanced parameters in the UI?

[Steven Shiau]

"Can this option (-sspt) also be put under the advanced parameters in the UI? " -> Yes, it is. However, when you use "saveaprts" and "restoreparts" mode in the TUI, you have no chance to choose /dev/sda but /dev/sdb1, for example, if it exists. Hence I suggest:

1. Follow the normal TUI to choose saveparts first, and choose whatever partition you have, until this green command is shown:
   https://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/doc/01_Save_disk_image/images/ocs-10-8-img-save-command-prompt.png
2. Once you got the green command, choose quit the program, and enter command line prompt.
3. Replace the last parameter in the green command to the disk device you want to save, e.g.,
   Change:
   ocs-sr -q2 -c -j2 -sspt -z9p -i 4096 -sfsck -senc -p choose saveparts my-img sdb1
   as
   ocs-sr -q2 -c -j2 -sspt -z9p -i 4096 -sfsck -senc -p choose saveparts my-img sda
   Then you will be able to save that.
   Do the similar way for restoreparts. However, this time REMEMBER do not really write to the destination partition you choose in the TUI, remember to quit the program and change the last parameter.
   If you are familiar with vi or other text editor in the command line prompt, the script saved in /tmp/ when green command line is shown is useful for you to run. Just edit that, and run it.

Steven

[Steven Shiau]

"Can this option (-sspt) also be put under the advanced parameters in the UI? " -> You can give Clonezilla live >= 2.7.2-11 or 20210317-* a try:
https://clonezilla.org/downloads.php

The option "-sspt" has been renamed as "-scpt", and if you choose to enter expert mode and choose "saveparts" or "restoreparts", you will have a chance to choose list all the block devices (both_type_dev), including disk(s) and partition(s).
With that, you can choose /dev/sda, for example, when save a partition in saveparts mode.
Of course, do remember to choose "-scpt".
Let us know the results if you test that. Thanks.

Steven