Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: nbmz on February 21, 2015, 06:17:35 am
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Hey guys,
Long time lurker, probably first post ever, so be patient. :)
In the office, we have a pair of these printers that are running fine, but I keep hearing these horror stories about the formatter going south due to the hard drives prematurely failing.
With that said, I've cloned many a drive, and the drives on these units have an ATA-based password (making it impossible to copy or clone without mounting the disk and putting in the password).
So, here are my questions:
- Has anyone been successful at loading the new firmware for any of these printers on a clean blank disk?
- Has anyone been successful at cloning these disks?
- (if so) has anyone used an SSD for replacement? :D
I just don't want to be in a position in where I have a drive that takes a dive and become unprepared to be back in service... :)
Many thanks for your answers.
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Hey guys,
Long time lurker, probably first post ever, so be patient. :)
In the office, we have a pair of these printers that are running fine, but I keep hearing these horror stories about the formatter going south due to the hard drives prematurely failing.
With that said, I've cloned many a drive, and the drives on these units have an ATA-based password (making it impossible to copy or clone without mounting the disk and putting in the password).
So, here are my questions:
- Has anyone been successful at loading the new firmware for any of these printers on a clean blank disk?
- Has anyone been successful at cloning these disks?
- (if so) has anyone used an SSD for replacement? :D
I just don't want to be in a position in where I have a drive that takes a dive and become unprepared to be back in service... :)
Many thanks for your answers.
I'm not familiar with these printers, since I use Epson products. However, I suspect that most printers are much alike in may respects. In that case, I imagine the only way to access the internal printer HDD is through a service program such as would be used by a service tech when replacing the head(s) or any other part that requires an identity code to be activated. If you can access the HDD, do you have the necessary password to enter and mount it? If so there should be no reason you can't clone it. Of course there are a lot of "ifs" to contend with here and unfortunately I have no specific answers for them. An interesting query nevertheless.
Gary
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depending on the firmware you *may* be able to use a 'raw' copier program (sorry but I'm a Unix guy and we'd use 'dd' utility which copies datablock by datablock w/o the need to mount etc etc.
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I was going to suggest, maybe a Unix setup can bypass these steps.
For your Q about SSD drive, some have instructions that may interfere with the HP boot, but maybe worth a try.
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Been using Z series printers for 7 years and following the forums and this comes up from time to time. People always have ideas of how it "might" be done but I've never heard of anyone actually doing it. Thinking about it, there seems to be generally less hacking going on with HP machines compared to Epsons - not sure if this says more about the printers or the people who buy them!
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Been using Z series printers for 7 years and following the forums and this comes up from time to time. People always have ideas of how it "might" be done but I've never heard of anyone actually doing it. Thinking about it, there seems to be generally less hacking going on with HP machines compared to Epsons - not sure if this says more about the printers or the people who buy them!
True, I have asked similar questions and did some digging (with an ICT skilled son) in the inward of the printer. Unix based, the Z3100 internally appropriately called Hydra (others reported Troika). Our conclusion was that the HD has a code on a separate bios or whatever you call that on an HD. I doubt copying the HD image block by block helps then. I bought spare HDs for the occassion that someone has the right solution. There was once a message here or in another forum indicating that but no reply came back when I asked for the details. Formatters are sold on Ebay from time to time, maybe there are smarter guys that have the key.
Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst
http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
December 2014 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots
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depending on the firmware you *may* be able to use a 'raw' copier program (sorry but I'm a Unix guy and we'd use 'dd' utility which copies datablock by datablock w/o the need to mount etc etc.
I'm a unix guy as well (solaris 10 daily for me) and the problem is, you cannot mount the drive until it's mounted on the controller and unlocked, as there is indeed an ATA password that prevents the drive from being accessed.
I have tried and tried, without any success. I wanted to see if anyone has attempted this. Thanks for the pointers though... :)
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True, I have asked similar questions and did some digging (with an ICT skilled son) in the inward of the printer. Unix based, the Z3100 internally appropriately called Hydra (others reported Troika). Our conclusion was that the HD has a code on a separate bios or whatever you call that on an HD.
Now this makes sense. I think its safe to say that the boot portion is on the disk itself as well as the OS for the printing system. I just wonder if there is a BIOS that is accessible via front-panel that allows to prep the disk and to set it up for ingestion of a firmware file, similar to the larger 5500 series printers...but indeed it must be some sort of unix based OS on these drive, just for the fact that an FSCK is done on startup of the printer when powered down incorrectly.
http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Printers-Designjet-Large-Format/Installing-a-new-blank-hard-drive-in-a-DesignJet-5500-or-5500PS/td-p/2350749#.VO1nQMYQKvI
(I was hoping someone was keen enough to have found a way, heheh)
I doubt copying the HD image block by block helps then. I bought spare HDs for the occassion that someone has the right solution. There was once a message here or in another forum indicating that but no reply came back when I asked for the details. Formatters are sold on Ebay from time to time, maybe there are smarter guys that have the key.
Somehow, I think that these guys have found a way to rewrite the drives, either by using an alternate formatter in a printer that allows for firmware writes (maybe using a formatter for the designjet 5500 and others) I sure don't see a USB port option...and the service mode won't be accessible until the printer/OS is successfully loaded.
It's more for peace of mind. That's really the only reason I would want a clone, as drives have a finite timespan. These printers will eventually die once the drive gives up the ghost, and will render the printers useless. I think HP should have used a flash-based OS/firmware and a hard drive for job storage...
This article was promising as well...might have to try that, but need to figure out whether the IP is still accessible after the printer is powered back on.
http://h20565.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?sp4ts.oid=436089&docId=emr_na-c01768718
Thanks for the help and advice guys. :) If anyone has any clues on what the ATA password could be on these drives, that would go a long way to having access and being able to clone the drives.
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Now this makes sense. I think its safe to say that the boot portion is on the disk itself as well as the OS for the printing system. I just wonder if there is a BIOS that is accessible via front-panel that allows to prep the disk and to set it up for ingestion of a firmware file, similar to the larger 5500 series printers...but indeed it must be some sort of unix based OS on these drive, just for the fact that an FSCK is done on startup of the printer when powered down incorrectly.
http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Printers-Designjet-Large-Format/Installing-a-new-blank-hard-drive-in-a-DesignJet-5500-or-5500PS/td-p/2350749#.VO1nQMYQKvI
(I was hoping someone was keen enough to have found a way, heheh)
Somehow, I think that these guys have found a way to rewrite the drives, either by using an alternate formatter in a printer that allows for firmware writes (maybe using a formatter for the designjet 5500 and others) I sure don't see a USB port option...and the service mode won't be accessible until the printer/OS is successfully loaded.
It's more for peace of mind. That's really the only reason I would want a clone, as drives have a finite timespan. These printers will eventually die once the drive gives up the ghost, and will render the printers useless. I think HP should have used a flash-based OS/firmware and a hard drive for job storage...
This article was promising as well...might have to try that, but need to figure out whether the IP is still accessible after the printer is powered back on.
http://h20565.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?sp4ts.oid=436089&docId=emr_na-c01768718
Thanks for the help and advice guys. :) If anyone has any clues on what the ATA password could be on these drives, that would go a long way to having access and being able to clone the drives.
The ATA password is "MartaLaiaDesiree".
Once you have that you can mount the drive on Linux by passing that via hdparm to the disk:
# hdparm --user-master u --security-unlock "MartaLaiaDesiree" /dev/sdb
and then you can use fdisk to get the partition table:
# fdisk /dev/sdb
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 298.9 GiB, 320072933376 bytes, 625142448 sectors
Disk model: [redacted]
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: [redacted]
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 * 63 273104 273042 133.3M 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 273105 2281229 2008125 980.5M 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 2281230 18298034 16016805 7.7G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 18298035 156296384 137998350 65.8G 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 18298098 20306159 2008062 980.5M 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6 20306223 62316134 42009912 20G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb7 62316198 120326849 58010652 27.7G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb8 120326913 156296384 35969472 17.2G 83 Linux
As you can see, even if your formatter has a 300+GB drive, the machine only uses 80GB for partitions, the rest is unpartitioned space.
If you mount the third partition you can find an /etc/fstab which looks like this:
/dev/disk/disk0/p1 /boot ext3 async,atime,auto,dev,exec,rw,suid,nouser 1 1
/dev/disk/disk0/p3 / ext3 async,atime,auto,dev,exec,rw,suid,nouser 1 1
/dev/disk/disk0/p5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/disk0/p6 /vpm ext3 async,atime,auto,dev,exec,rw,suid,nouser 1 1
/dev/disk/disk0/p7 /data ext3 async,atime,auto,dev,exec,rw,suid,nouser,data=writeback 1 1
/dev/disk/disk0/p8 /plots ext3 async,atime,auto,dev,exec,rw,suid,nouser,data=journal 1 1
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
The bootloader is lilo, so altering partition size/location is somewhat problematic. I assume partition 2 is a recovery partition and the partitions you'd really want to tweak to do anything useful in terms of running bigger jobs or storing more jobs or whatever are p5 (swap), p6 (vpm), p7 (data), and p8 (plots).
Ideally you would first want to unlock the drive and then run a straight dd clone or clonezilla.
Note that the formatter is based off the Intel ICH4 southbridge which is natively PATA, there is a PATA to SATA converter chip on the board, so even if you go to a 7200rpm disk or a SSD you're not standing to gain much in performance because you're still limited to the max of ATA/133MB/s speed even though the slowest SATA spec is 150MB/s. So don't feel the need to put in the world's fastest SATA SSD thinking you'll save minutes off your next startup.
P.S.: This is for a Q5670-60021 Rev A formatter, but probably works for anything with the 50X15CR formatter, I would assume since the ATA password has to lurk in the BIOS and the BIOS ought to be the same for the boards that the password is the same.
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Well, This is interesting!
I still have access to the Z3200 printers. Will try and see about accessing the disk. :)
An SSD would still be ideal, as it would not crash as quickly as a platter ATA drive. At the very least, I'd be tempted to see how it works out.
Thanks so much for the help with the password! Will keep you all posted if I can actually clone a copy.
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Well, This is interesting!
I still have access to the Z3200 printers. Will try and see about accessing the disk. :)
An SSD would still be ideal, as it would not crash as quickly as a platter ATA drive. At the very least, I'd be tempted to see how it works out.
Thanks so much for the help with the password! Will keep you all posted if I can actually clone a copy.
The real problem IMHO is that these machines use ext3 file system type, so they have a Y2K-type bug, specifically the 2038 bug. So these machines are going to have issues with that unless a solution comes up (such as moving the kernel and filesystem to ext4). Or keeping the clock set back...
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wow, thanks for revealing that password, opens up a whole new world!
My printer now runs fine on an SSD without password, the 10-year old disk stays in the cupboard for safety.
Already gathered interesting infos from the logs:
Linux version 2.6.10_mvl401-pc_target (root@(none)) (gcc version 3.4.3 (MontaVista 3.4.3-25.0.70.0501961 2005-12-17)) #8 Fri Jun 30 11:54:22 UTC 2006
CPU: L1 I cache: 32K, L1 D cache: 32K
CPU: L2 cache: 512K
CPU: After all inits, caps: a7e9fbbf 00000000 00000000 00000040
CPU: Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 600MHz stepping 05
also that disk seems to contain software for all possible models, like
Q6718A
Q6720A
Q6719A
Q6721A
My guess would be its possible to convert non-PS to PS models just by doing settign some things in software, as on my non-PS version all PS stuff seems to be included.
regards
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wow, thanks for revealing that password, opens up a whole new world!
My printer now runs fine on an SSD without password, the 10-year old disk stays in the cupboard for safety.
Already gathered interesting infos from the logs:
Linux version 2.6.10_mvl401-pc_target (root@(none)) (gcc version 3.4.3 (MontaVista 3.4.3-25.0.70.0501961 2005-12-17)) #8 Fri Jun 30 11:54:22 UTC 2006
CPU: L1 I cache: 32K, L1 D cache: 32K
CPU: L2 cache: 512K
CPU: After all inits, caps: a7e9fbbf 00000000 00000000 00000040
CPU: Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 600MHz stepping 05
also that disk seems to contain software for all possible models, like
Q6718A
Q6720A
Q6719A
Q6721A
My guess would be its possible to convert non-PS to PS models just by doing settign some things in software, as on my non-PS version all PS stuff seems to be included.
regards
How did you clone the disk to SSD (method/process)? I have not yet had success cloning to a SSD. What model SSD did you use?
As far as Postscript upgrade goes, I would guess that's not determined by the firmware (else there'd be different packages for PS and non-PS to download) and that there's either a chip on the Main PCA that determines this or a software flag set by the Main PCA. As the Main PCA has 2 serial headers and 2 JTAG headers I'd guess that's where to look (the JTAG would allow programming at the factory) and if the formatter board is universal barring what firmware is on the drive that would pretty much guarantee it. Alternatively there ought to be something in the firmware that allows reading and writing of NVRAM and therefore if someone gets sufficiently clever (by say enabling the SSH service that's present in the firmware to get a shell) we ought to be able to start reading and dumping NVRAMs for comparison. But I would not want that turned on if the device is on an insecure network or can be accessed from the public Internet.
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How did you clone the disk to SSD (method/process)? I have not yet had success cloning to a SSD. What model SSD did you use?
As far as Postscript upgrade goes, I would guess that's not determined by the firmware (else there'd be different packages for PS and non-PS to download) and that there's either a chip on the Main PCA that determines this or a software flag set by the Main PCA. As the Main PCA has 2 serial headers and 2 JTAG headers I'd guess that's where to look (the JTAG would allow programming at the factory) and if the formatter board is universal barring what firmware is on the drive that would pretty much guarantee it. Alternatively there ought to be something in the firmware that allows reading and writing of NVRAM and therefore if someone gets sufficiently clever (by say enabling the SSH service that's present in the firmware to get a shell) we ought to be able to start reading and dumping NVRAMs for comparison. But I would not want that turned on if the device is on an insecure network or can be accessed from the public Internet.
Ah. Here we go:
/home/atlas/ettools/troja/TCLTests#
-rw-r--r-- 1 1001 1001 5653 Apr 13 2011 ITTCPBconfigurePostScripttoBasic.tcl
-rw-r--r-- 1 1001 1001 8501 Apr 13 2011 ITTCPSconfigurePostScript.tcl
It's NVRAM-based and there's some TCL magic and other stuff that checks for/copies PS fonts to /plots/camelot and then sets values in NVRAM.
So probably very easy if you have a copy of the fonts to put in the proper partition/folder and write the appropriate NVRAM settings.
TROJA.ini looks to be very helpful.
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cloning was actually quite easy, I just did a simple
dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdc bs=32M
after unlocking on my Desktop using a Linux USB stick.
Did not fiddle around with any partitions, the Hitachi disk happens to be exactly of the same size as my Intel SSDSC2BB160G4 where I copied to.
Will try to enable ssh (not sure about the root password yet) and have a look at troja.ini.
regards
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cloning was actually quite easy, I just did a simple
dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdc bs=32M
after unlocking on my Desktop using a Linux USB stick.
Did not fiddle around with any partitions, the Hitachi disk happens to be exactly of the same size as my Intel SSDSC2BB160G4 where I copied to.
Will try to enable ssh (not sure about the root password yet) and have a look at troja.ini.
regards
It looks an awful lot like there is no root password.
I had tried a direct dd but I also set security on the SSD after the dd finished, I guess the machine didn't like that fact though.
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Found no reason why sshd is not listening, looks quite OK for me. What am I missing?
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Found no reason why sshd is not listening, looks quite OK for me. What am I missing?
Is sshd set to start in runlevel 3? sshd_config configured properly? I'm not great at initscripts stuff but it'd have to be started. Also there's a lot of nologon in the initscripts that might also be preventing login if it is running. Should also be configured to allow root access.
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created a symlink in rc3.d to start ssh, but that didnt help so far. I guess I should try to get serial access...
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created a symlink in rc3.d to start ssh, but that didnt help so far. I guess I should try to get serial access...
Let us know if you figure out the pinout for the UART on the formatter.
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Wow, this has been a slow burn, great to see this problem finally toppled. I always thought it was just a question of getting the right brains engaged and it sounds as if you guys are it.
Thanks for the good work,
William.
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Wow, this has been a slow burn, great to see this problem finally toppled. I always thought it was just a question of getting the right brains engaged and it sounds as if you guys are it.
Thanks for the good work,
William.
This is what happens when this sort of hardware hits the auction/resale market at stupid prices.
I only got involved because I picked up a z3200 that was so underused in its lifetime that it still had 7/12 original starter cartridges in it for a price that'd probably make most of you cry. The only catches so far were 1) having to get new ink and heads and 2) having to replace the belt which of course shredded after making the first test print.
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Ha, thats exactly my story, too :)
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Another step forward:
login as: root
Last login: Mon Nov 29 14:02:57 2010 from 192.0.0.190
Linux (none) 2.6.10_mvl401-pc_target #53 Wed Jul 23 17:16:06 CEST 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
Welcome to MontaVista(R) Linux(R) Professional Edition 4.0.1 (0502020).
8)
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system is getting more and more open source now ...
# troya Obtain bootmode from FP keyboard
#
# DESCRIPTION: This script will return the bootmode defined as a power-up key combination, magic packet or lock files.
#
#
# KEYPAD DESCRIPTION:
#
# The keypad sends 16 bits (2 bytes) of data in the following format:
#
# 15 - 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
# +-------+------+--------+-------+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------+
# | reser | Up | Power | Menu | NA | Enter | Down | Back | Cancel|
# | ved | | | | | | | | |
# +-------+------+--------+-------+-------+--------+-------+--------+-------+
#
# A bit is 1 when the corresponding key is pressed and 0 when released.
# This script will transform this into a string that defines the bootmode for everybody.
#
# Bits 1 to 5 are reserved for general bootmodes, so we will have up to 7 of them
#
# Bits 6 is for special sub-bootmodes. This will we used mainly for development and will allow us to
# define special features like start or not r-services, etc ...
#
#
# BOOTMODE CHECK SEQUENCE:
#
# We determine the bootmode by analizing the following sequence:
#
# Step 1. Check if any FP key has been pressed. If yes, this will be the bootmde
# Step 2. If from 1, there is no key pressed, check if we receive the "magic" packet thru LAN
# Step 3. If there is no magic paquet, check the lock files in /home/gw
#
#
# OUTPUT: <general bootmode> <io_submode> <engine_submode> <formatter_submode> <view_submode>
#
# <general bootmode>: Activable thru: FP Key Lock file
# ________________________________________________
# . printer X X
# . manufacturing X X
# . hp-service X X
# . lang-select X X
#
# . pc-target X
# . development X (provisional) X
#
# <io_submode>:
# . r-services X (provisional) X
# ( activate rlogin, rcp, etc )
#
# <engine_submode>:
# . debug X
# ( ddd & tcl port )
# . tcl-open X
# ( tcl port )
#
# <formatter_submode>:
# . debug X
# ( ddd )
#
# <view_submode>:
# ( not defined )
#
# Vector of defined bootmodes:
# mode[<key-combination-decimal-value>]="<bootmode name>"
#
# NOTE: In product.rc script file there is a comprobation that the bootmode is allowed
# If you include here one bootmode, include it also in the other script
MAX_BOOTMODES=31
mode[0]="printer"
#mode[1]="manufacturing" # CANCEL
mode[2049]="manufacturing" # SW3 + CANCEL
mode[8]="lang-select" # ENTER
mode[136]="hp-service-1" # UP + ENTER
mode[12]="hp-service-2" # DOWN + ENTER
mode[141]="development" # CANCEL + ENTER + UP + DOWN
mode[16392]="games" # SW1 + ENTER
mode[8200]="logon" # SW2 + ENTER
mode[2056]="logviewer" # SW3 + ENTER
mode[4104]="logoff" # SW4 + ENTER
#
# FGC OJO!!! eliminate development bootmode !!
#
DEFAULT_BOOTMODE="printer"
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Another step forward:
login as: root
Last login: Mon Nov 29 14:02:57 2010 from 192.0.0.190
Linux (none) 2.6.10_mvl401-pc_target #53 Wed Jul 23 17:16:06 CEST 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
Welcome to MontaVista(R) Linux(R) Professional Edition 4.0.1 (0502020).
8)
Tell the class how you got a root login.
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two steps necessary:
- remove or rename /sbin/iptables (disabling the firewall in the service menu didnt help)
- create symlink /etc/rc3.d/S20ssh pointing to ../init.d/ssh to start ssh daemon
both can be done when mounting the drive in some live linux session on a PC
I am still stuck in how to access nvram and what parameters need to be touched for converting a Q6718A to a Q6720A.
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Fascinating discussion! If you Google that password, it seems to be generic and related to Seagate HDD firmware?
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Fascinating discussion! If you Google that password, it seems to be generic and related to Seagate HDD firmware?
It's not generic. It's specific to drives used on these formatter boards, but you can extract the password from Seagate drives by connecting to the controller on the drive using a USB-TTL serial cable and issue commands to directly dump specific sectors, including the one containing the password.
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After some fiddling around, understanding all the scripts and checks running, I was convinced hard- and software to be identical between non-PS and PS versions. Using strace and some guesswork, I finally figured a very simple process to migrate my Z3200 Photo to a Z3200PS.
Now comes the problem: to prevent any trouble with HP and/or Adobe and this forum, I refrain from posting this in public as of now.
cu
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Ok, some more findings:
that revealed ATA password really only protects HPs marketing bullshit, but does nothing to protect user data on disk or the like. Make sure you take out the disk of your Designjets before duping them, all previously saved jobs can be re-printed without much hassle. That ATA password surely has been public for years already.
What really makes me angry: not only are non-PS and PS version of same hard and software, HP decided to cripple the non-PS version even further, just for more differentiation (say to get more people to spend the extra bucks).
The PS version not only enables PDF and PS spooling directly, it also gives the user access to the job queue to preview, store or cancel stuff. Not related to any Adobe license at all.
Even further, the built-in Intel 82541GI/PI is a fully featured Gigabit NIC, but will only offer 10/100MBit on the non-PS model. Doing the "upgrade" to PS will automatically enable full 10/100/1000MBit negotiation.
To better hide their intention HP decided to encrypt firmware updates (which are just .tgz files) with ccrypt using a static password (translated "the night confuses me"), used also on Z5200, Z6100 and probably many more.
In this regards I would like to encourage people to clone the disk, enable root access to get full control and full potential of your Designjets!
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Just catching up with this thread after a long time away from the board. Sounds like great progress. Just a suggestion here. What might be helpful is a summary in one post on how to back up the drive or clone it to SDD. Something simple like: Step 1 - remove drive from the Z3200... Step 2 - disconnect drive from interface board... Step 3 - Connect SATA drive to a computer running Linux. Step 4 - issue these commands in this order... etc. Instructions that us less Linux fluent owners could follow easily
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Just catching up with this thread after a long time away from the board. Sounds like great progress. Just a suggestion here. What might be helpful is a summary in one post on how to back up the drive or clone it to SDD. Something simple like: Step 1 - remove drive from the Z3200... Step 2 - disconnect drive from interface board... Step 3 - Connect SATA drive to a computer running Linux. Step 4 - issue these commands in this order... etc. Instructions that us less Linux fluent owners could follow easily
Here's a rough outline:
Requirements:
1) Computer running Linux with "hdparm" and "parted" utilities installed.
2) Disk off your formatter board. (This is the SOURCE)
3) A target disk to clone to OR sufficient disk space (80+ GB) on your Linux PC. (This is the TARGET)
4) A USB to SATA adapter which supports passing ATA Security commands or having your source hard drive directly connected to the Linux computer's onboard SATA connectors.
5) Enough working knowledge of Linux/command lines or ability to read some HOWTOs.
Process:
1) Connect drives and boot Linux PC. Login and switch to root user.
2) Determine which drive is what by using "parted -l" which will give you output like this:
Model: KBG40ZNS256G NVMe TOSHIBA 256GB (nvme)
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 256GB
So you can see make/model of the drive and its corresponding /dev/device entry, which you need for the next steps.
3) When you figure out what your SOURCE hard drive disk location is (I'm going to assume /dev/sdb), issue "hdparm -I /dev/sdb" and you should get something like this:
# hdparm -I /dev/sdb
/dev/sdb:
[...]
Security:
Master password revision code = 65534
supported
enabled
locked
not frozen
expired: security count
supported: enhanced erase
Security level high
4min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 2min for ENHANCED SECURITY ERASE UNIT.
[...]
The key point is your SOURCE drive is LOCKED at this point. You need to unlock it.
4) Issue "hdparm --user-master u --security-unlock "MartaLaiaDesiree" /dev/sdb" to unlock the drive.
5) At this point you should be able to see partition on your drive:
# fdisk /dev/sdb
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 298.9 GiB, 320072933376 bytes, 625142448 sectors
Disk model: [redacted]
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: [redacted]
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 * 63 273104 273042 133.3M 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 273105 2281229 2008125 980.5M 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 2281230 18298034 16016805 7.7G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 18298035 156296384 137998350 65.8G 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 18298098 20306159 2008062 980.5M 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6 20306223 62316134 42009912 20G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb7 62316198 120326849 58010652 27.7G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb8 120326913 156296384 35969472 17.2G 83 Linux
This is the point at which you can tinker with things on your drive by mounting those partitions and editing the files AND/OR clone your drive to another drive or make a backup image.
https://medium.com/codex/the-art-of-cloning-disks-the-dd-command-primary-usage-patterns-ff377b7616c9 (https://medium.com/codex/the-art-of-cloning-disks-the-dd-command-primary-usage-patterns-ff377b7616c9) A general guide for cloning disks.
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My notes:
Steps to clone HDD:
1, get the formatter out, remove the disk
2, plug the disk and the one you want to use for copy to a PC and boot some live Linux (maybe from USB)
3, you may be prompted for the SATA password in BIOS, just cancel this and boot Linux
4, find the proper disk name in Linux, open a terminal and do: sudo fdisk -l (depending on the used Linux distribution you may or may not need sudo before each command)
5, unlock the disk in linux: sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-unlock "MartaLaiaDesiree" /dev/sda (or whatever fdisk -l showed you. The password needs to be set in quotes)
6, make a copy of the disk using dd: dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdc bs=32M (in this case sda is source, sdc is target).
Use a disk or SSD at least the size of the original, 160GB will do. Copy process will take some time and doesnt show any progress. Wait until the command prompt comes back.
7, shutdown your PC, store the original disk in a safe place and continue to work using the copy or just put it back into the printer.
That clone can be copied again much easier, even running Windows with special tools like Trueimage or Partition Assistant
regards
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Both posts are excellent and I am gonna try this tonight. Thanks!
EDIT:
dministrator@administrator-Inspiron-7375:~$ sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-unlock "MartaLaiaDesiree" /dev/sdb
security_password: "MartaLaiaDesiree"
/dev/sdb:
Issuing SECURITY_UNLOCK command, password="MartaLaiaDesiree", user=user
SG_IO: bad/missing sense data, sb[]: 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Drive is connected to a USB to SATA enclosure. Any suggestions?
EDIT: I figured it out. It did not like the USB to SATA connector I was using. I found a workaround. The dd command is running now. Thanks again!
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Just want to confirm this process worked ok for me
I bought a 64GB SSD from Amazon for $25cad and its working great.
I just wish I could make it skip the FSCK on startup as thats not necessary now lol
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In my case the FSCK stopped with a fresh CMOS battery.
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I have just inherited a Z2100 with no HDD. Before I send it to the recycle pile I would like to try and see if I can breath a little more life into it. Hoping someone can point me to a download of the HDD image. I have searched on google but struggling with the right terms to use. Hoping someone may give some assistance. I have an array of HDD's and not knowing if the unit will go beyond the HDD startup error code not wanting to buy a pre configured one off ebay in hope it will work.
Thanks in advance.
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Anybody can comment on Main board revisions?. My z3100 has HP 50X15 LF part number. It sports 1 * 128MB DDR and PATA drive (390998-001).
I wanted to clone the disk and replace it with an SSD, but there's no SATA here. Transcend has some PATA SSD drives, and I've seen generic PATA-to-something-else adapter
I wonder if I'm better off with a newer board revision instead of shoehorning PATA SSD on it. Also, anybody knows what's the maximum RAM module supported by these boards?
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afaik the z3100 was always PATA, z3200 started with SATA from the beginning.
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afaik the z3100 was always PATA, z3200 started with SATA from the beginning.
Found a dusty IDE to USB adapter. Same ATA password works for that IDE/PATA Western Digital drive from the Z3100.
Interestingly enough, even though I tried to use sparse files, it seems dd copied it block by block in the end (no savings). After passing the file through gzip,it went down in size about 92%.
amer:~ # dd conv=sparse if=/dev/sdb of=/home/z3100.hdd.raw-dd bs=10M
3815+1 records in
3815+1 records out
40007761920 bytes (40 GB, 37 GiB) copied, 1470 s, 27.2 MB/s
amer:/home # du -hs z3100.hdd.raw*
38G z3100.hdd.raw
amer:/home # gzip z3100.hdd.raw
amer:/home # du -hs z3100.hdd.raw.gz
3.6G z3100.hdd.raw.gz
The second partition of the z3100 drive holds de root filesystem, etc/fstab looks like this:
amer:~ # cat /mnt/etc/fstab
#
# See fstab(5) for more information
#
# spec file vfstype mntops freq passno
#
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 /boot ext3 async,atime,auto,dev,exec,rw,suid,nouser 1 1
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part2 / ext3 async,atime,auto,dev,exec,rw,suid,nouser 1 1
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part3 /standard ext3 async,atime,auto,dev,exec,rw,suid,nouser 1 1
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part6 /vpm ext3 async,atime,auto,dev,exec,rw,suid,nouser 1 1
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part7 /data ext3 async,atime,auto,dev,exec,rw,suid,nouser,data=writeback 1 1
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part8 /plots ext3 async,atime,auto,dev,exec,rw,suid,nouser,data=journal 1 1
/dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /mnt/cdrom0 iso9660 noauto,owner,ro 0 0
/dev/floppy/0 /mnt/floppy0 auto noauto,owner 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
Recreated via mount as:
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdb2 979M 314M 614M 34% /mnt
/dev/sdb1 125M 6.3M 112M 6% /mnt/boot
/dev/sdb3 3.0G 1.6G 1.3G 57% /mnt/standard
/dev/sdb6 11G 60K 11G 1% /mnt/vpm
/dev/sdb7 8.9G 518M 7.9G 7% /mnt/data
/dev/sdb8 10G 120M 9.3G 2% /mnt/plots
/mnt
Emergency root filesystem is here
/mnt/boot
Boot loader data
/mnt/standard
root filesystem. Includes an interesting "Changelog" file (why would you remove vi Jaume?!)
/mnt/vpm
Empty, no idea what it's for so far..
/mnt/data
Scratch area?. I see some icc files, references to updates, logs.
/mnt/plots
Some .bkz files, can't identify anything I've sent to the printer.
Any word on how much RAM can the board support?, 1GB?
Edit: I was looking at the rescue system running Montavista 3.x, the one market as /standard is the main/production root with Montavista 4.x
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Well, it seems I bricked my z3100 (at least for the time being).
Changes I made to the removed formatter:
1. Enable SSH
2. Allow SSH in the firewall configuration
3. Set root password
4. fsck on all the filesystems after unmounting
5. Change the battery to a brand new Duracell (CR2032) just to make sure it's not a problem.
After installing the formatter again, I get an audible alarm and 0% in the boot progress bar.
Given your experience, do you believe any of the steps in particular contributed?, Did you set the root password for example?
Will revisit tomorrow,
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wild guess, because I never tried that: leave the root password untouched (empty)
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Left the root user without password. Didn't work.
Also, I succesfully booted a virtual machine using the physical disk and it booted until a failure trying to access hardware which is not present (as expected), so it's not damaged.
Today fully restored the disk with the original image I took, will try once more to boot.
If it fails, probably I killed the board somehow (static electricity?). Looking for SATA boards at Ebay, anybody knows the recipe to wipe the HDD to machine mapping to allow any disk to be used?
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wild guess, because I never tried that: leave the root password untouched (empty)
The printer boot/initialization still fails with the original image restored (all changes reverted, only the new CR2032 battery is in the picture.
Same results as before:
0% in boot process
+
08:11 error.
Probably I damaged the hardware somehow.
I'm waiting for another set of RAM module + PATA disk. That would be my next attempt.
The last one would be to get a new formatter from LPS (around us$ 200). On the bright side, it would give me a SATA interface, on the not so bright side, it seems newer formatters don't have removable memory modules.
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Happy to report that after reseating the memory module it booted successfully.
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Hi, I have some experience with PATA discs in a Mercedes Comand navigation system. The 40GB discs are password protected. I have found a method on the internet to make these discs accessible and to copy the data. I have connected such IDE disks to an old PC with IDE, via an IDE-USB it does not work. The PC boots with MS-DOS. With MHDD.exe the drive was unlocked with the password. Clonezilla (LINUX) can then copy the disk. Someone discovered the password through a sniffer between the IDE. If the disc is reinserted into the Comand, the lock will reappear.