i've been toying around with clonezilla server edition for a month or so and love it! great stuff! one concern i have is the seagate momentus fde drives. do you think clonezilla would most likely be able to create an image from one of these encrypted drives? and if so, would that image possibly be limited to only being restored to the originating encrypted drive? has anyone played around with clonezilla on one of these drives before?
thanks for this great software!
ken
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Here we have very limited experience about such a clone on encrypted partition. I guess that clonezilla will use dd to clone it. If you are using LUKS system, it's also possible to unlock it first, then clonezilla can use corresponding program (ntfsclone, partclone or partimage) to clone it.
The image can be restored to any disk (The size is >= the original one). However, when booting, it depends on the encryption mechanism.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
yeah, i have no idea what encryption spec seagate is using on these drives, although i doubt it's LUKS. either way, maybe seagate provides a way to turn off the encryption mechanisms provided. i'll have an opportunity to poke around at these drives within a month or so, and can provide some feedback if needed.
thanks,
ken
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
well, i didn't necessarily test these drives out as much as i would have liked, but we did play around with them somewhat. we purchased a few dell laptops with these drives pre-installed, but didn't attempt to create a clonezilla image of them with the drive encryption turned on.
we created images with the encryption mechanism turned off in the BIOS, and the clonezilla software worked as expected. if these particular images need to be restored to these laptops, we'll simply turn off the encryption, install the image, and turn the encryption back on in the BIOS.
if someone were to purchase these types of drives OEM or off the shelf, i would imagine that seagate would have a very different way of turning the encryption on and off (via firmware, cd, etc), since the drives wouldn't have a clue as to what device it's installed in or the BIOS the device is using.
sorry i didn't take the time to attempt to create an image with the encryption turned on, but i'm not sold as to what good it would do anyways. these drives are encrypted on the drive and not necessarily in the OS, so i'm not sure a restored image would work as expected after installation to any drive other than the one it was created from, if encryption is turned before image creation.
thank you for a far superior product than any i have seen and tested, and expect a donation from me (well, my employer) in the near future.
Ken,
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Yes, if the encryption is in the hardware, just turn it off before using Clonezilla live to save and restore.
Thanks again.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
i've been toying around with clonezilla server edition for a month or so and love it! great stuff! one concern i have is the seagate momentus fde drives. do you think clonezilla would most likely be able to create an image from one of these encrypted drives? and if so, would that image possibly be limited to only being restored to the originating encrypted drive? has anyone played around with clonezilla on one of these drives before?
thanks for this great software!
ken
Here we have very limited experience about such a clone on encrypted partition. I guess that clonezilla will use dd to clone it. If you are using LUKS system, it's also possible to unlock it first, then clonezilla can use corresponding program (ntfsclone, partclone or partimage) to clone it.
The image can be restored to any disk (The size is >= the original one). However, when booting, it depends on the encryption mechanism.
yeah, i have no idea what encryption spec seagate is using on these drives, although i doubt it's LUKS. either way, maybe seagate provides a way to turn off the encryption mechanisms provided. i'll have an opportunity to poke around at these drives within a month or so, and can provide some feedback if needed.
thanks,
ken
Yes, please share more with us.
Thanks in advance.
well, i didn't necessarily test these drives out as much as i would have liked, but we did play around with them somewhat. we purchased a few dell laptops with these drives pre-installed, but didn't attempt to create a clonezilla image of them with the drive encryption turned on.
we created images with the encryption mechanism turned off in the BIOS, and the clonezilla software worked as expected. if these particular images need to be restored to these laptops, we'll simply turn off the encryption, install the image, and turn the encryption back on in the BIOS.
if someone were to purchase these types of drives OEM or off the shelf, i would imagine that seagate would have a very different way of turning the encryption on and off (via firmware, cd, etc), since the drives wouldn't have a clue as to what device it's installed in or the BIOS the device is using.
sorry i didn't take the time to attempt to create an image with the encryption turned on, but i'm not sold as to what good it would do anyways. these drives are encrypted on the drive and not necessarily in the OS, so i'm not sure a restored image would work as expected after installation to any drive other than the one it was created from, if encryption is turned before image creation.
thank you for a far superior product than any i have seen and tested, and expect a donation from me (well, my employer) in the near future.
thanks,
ken papizan
http://sourceforge.net/projects/timeclock
Ken,
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Yes, if the encryption is in the hardware, just turn it off before using Clonezilla live to save and restore.
Thanks again.