HDDSuperClone SAS 520 Drives 2019 11 30

About this video

• Video Title: HDDSuperClone SAS 520 Drives 2019 11 30
• Channel: HDDSuperClone
• Speakers: None explicitly identified.
• Duration: 00:08:54

Overview

This video demonstrates how to use HDDSuperClone to work with SAS drives that have a 520-byte sector size. It covers cloning a 520-byte drive to an image file, cloning a 520-byte drive to a 512-byte image file by trimming the excess bytes, writing a 520-byte image file back to a 520-byte drive, and writing a 512-byte image file to a 520-byte drive by padding the sectors. The video also highlights that writing to odd sector sizes in Linux can be slower.

Key takeaways

• Controller Requirement: To work with 520-byte SAS drives, a non-RAID controller is necessary. The controller must present the drives as individual disks, not as a RAID array.
• Cloning 520-byte to 520-byte: HDDSuperClone can clone a 520-byte drive to a 520-byte image file, preserving the original sector size.
• Cloning 520-byte to 512-byte: When cloning a 520-byte drive to a 512-byte image, the excess 8 bytes per sector (used by the RAID controller) are trimmed. This can be achieved by enabling the "output sector size adjustment" in advanced settings and setting the adjustment to -8.
• Writing 512-byte to 520-byte: To write a 512-byte image to a 520-byte drive, the "SCSI write to destination" and "sector size adjustment" options must be enabled in advanced settings. The adjustment should be set to +8 to pad the sectors to 520 bytes.
• Write Speed Anomaly: Writing to odd sector sizes (like 520 bytes) using SCSI pass-through in Linux is significantly slower than reading, and this is an inherent limitation.