Cloning SD cards

Posted by: @codecage

I have something like what I'm seeing in the picture, but it doesn't do any "cloning" on it's own. 

All docking stations don't have the cloning feature.   Mine is both a docking station and a cloning machine.

It's works GREAT!  I can do SD cards with it now too because I bought two of those SD to SATA adapter cards.

Like I say, the only thing I need to keep an eye out for are SD cards that aren't precisely the same size even though they claim to be.    If you buy a bunch from the same manufacturer they should all be identical.  But if you buy from different manufactures some are a few bytes larger or smaller.  Although NONE of them actually hold the number of GB as advertised.

Posted by: @codecage

What was it you changed on your machine that stopped you from seeing that first reaction.

Unfortunately I don't remember. 😮 

I think it might have been under "AutoPlay" in the control panel either under "Removable Devices" or "Camera storage Memory Card".

I don't remember exactly what I did.  I actually posted on Paul's video a comment for the solution but I'll probably never find that comment again.

@robo-pi

Just turned autoplay off.  Now I'll see what may different.  It was on before and the two "Choose AutoPlay defaults" dropdowns, "Removable drive" and "Memory card" both said "use defaults."  What I'm not sure of was what that actually means.  What are you settings for those items at the moment?  Maybe we can try to track dow what works and what doesn't.

Posted by: @codecage

What are you settings for those items at the moment?  Maybe we can try to track dow what works and what doesn't.

Ok, now I'm totally confused.   I just plugged a Jetson Nano System card into a card reader and plugged it into my Windows computer.   Other than showing up as an unknown device in the Devices and Printers of the Control Panel it isn't showing up in File Explorer at all.

I don't understand this because I swear I had made back up images of Nano System cards before.

In fact, I just looked on my hard drive where I store them and there's 16GB Jetson Nano Barebones system image on there.

How in the world could I have made that image if not via Win32Diskimager?

Now you have me all confused.

This is like the Twilight Zone.  It was doing it before, and now it won't recognize it.

It's all your guy's fault.

This is blowing my mind.  I had to have done it before.  How else could I have made that 16GB Jetson Nano Barebones system image backup?

I just now looked on my drives on the Docking Station and I have back-ups on there of the Jetson Nano system images too.

Now I can't remember how I did it.  The only way I know how to do that is using Win32Diskimager.

But now it's not recognizing the SD card anymore.   How can that be?

This is really weird.

It was working before you guys claimed it can't be done.  Now the whole world has changed. 😮 

@robo-pi

Sounds like it got corrupted...  Maybe it never got CLOSED when used last?  I've heard they are very FINICKY that way...  Open'em, read/write, and then close'em...  do not leave them OPEN...

I sure hope you figure out what went wrong...

@robo-pi

It's the Nano-Virus-20!  It migrated from my machine to yours via the Forum!  LOL  🤣 

Very interesting indeed.  Haven't had the chance to test the changes I made to the Autoplay settings.  Maybe tomorrow.

Posted by: @codecage

Very interesting indeed.  Haven't had the chance to test the changes I made to the Autoplay settings.  Maybe tomorrow.

I think I set all my autoplay settings to simply, "Take no action".   Then when I plug the card in I just go to File Explorer and open things up manually.

I think I know what might have happened.  I started a brand new batch of Jetson Nano system cards.  And when I did that I downloaded a fresh version of Jetpack from NVIDIA.   Apparently it's that new version that will no longer show up on Windows.  I think the original version I had would and that's how I was able to create those original backup system images.

I'm all confused now.  I haven't messed with the Jetson Nanos in a while as I've been working with the Rpi 4 with PocketSphinx and eSpeak.  I'll be returning to the Jetson Nanos shortly.  In fact, I'm anxious to see if my new Python GUI program will run on the Jetson Nano without a lot of modifications.   The only thing I anticipate being different will be file paths.   I might try messing with that tomorrow.

I'm sure I can still make Jetson Nano system backups using the cloning machine.  But I'm at a loss as to why they no longer show up on Windows.  They used to!  It must have been the newer system image I downloaded.   I think I have the original download around here somewhere. Someday I'll try to get to the bottom of this mystery.

Posted by: @robo-pi

I'm not sure what you are doing there.

Basically, I was testing to see what it read, and even tho I didn't realize it at the time, it gave me results, yet, I was so focused on the box, I completely failed to take into consideration that the brand new SD card I was using might actually be the bad part, which, it seems, appears to be the case

I got tired of fighting with the gizmo and took that brand new SD Card, stuck it in the USB adapter, and plugged it into my computer, and immediately had issues with formatting it

That's not much of a surprise since the Jetson disks never read on my computer anyway (remember, this is the same disk I tried the DD on, so, it was an ALMOST jetson disk) so I used the MS-DOS diskpart to "clean" it, then I formatted it and flashed Jetbot onto it, stuck it into my Jetson, and...

Nothing

Now, since the DD version did seem to be trying to boot, and it was coming up with partition errors, and the proper flash version did absolutely nothing, and the disk cloner didn't seem to do anything (which is what you'd expect when faced with a faulty disk) my CURRENT conclusion (which is not yet a permanent one) is that there's some kind of partition defect on that SD Card. I'm going to have to acquire another 64G card to test it again, but, for now, I think it's a bad SD Card, which, again, means that the gizmo has yet to be tested

Either that, or the gizmo somehow ruined the card, which is also a theory that needs to be tested

@robo-pi

File Manager doesn't see the card, but Disk Manager does (12 partitions!).  In fact you can not even run SD Card Formatter on the card until you delete the partition information from the drive!

This is really blowing my mind, because I definitely made back up copies of the system image before.  There can be no doubt about it because the system images are still on my hard drives.  So there must have been a time when I was able to read them. How else could those system images have gotten onto my hard drive?  These are clearly images that I backed up from system cards.  They are not images that I had downloaded.

In any case, I've been trying to read the SD card again this morning with no luck.  I even put it in the Raspberry Pi and Raspbian doesn't recognize it either.   Only the Jetson Nano will open it.

I know for certain that I can make back-up clones using my cloning box.  That's how I've been doing it lately.  So at least I have that.

But there was a time when I could also save image files via Windows using Win32Diskimager.  Why that stopped working I'm not sure.

Although, I did download a new system image when I started fresh.  That must have been what did it. 

Although I'm still using JetPack 4.2.1 

But the original version I downloaded must have created cards that could be read from Windows.

This is all news to me because I was under the impression that I could still read these cards using Win32Diskimager.   But apparently not.

Fortunately I can still clone them using the cloning box.  So I'm at least that far along.

Posted by: @robo-pi

In any case, I've been trying to read the SD card again this morning with no luck.  I even put it in the Raspberry Pi and Raspbian doesn't recognize it either.   Only the Jetson Nano will open it

My mistake!  The Raspberry Pi does read the Jetson Nano SD card.   The first time I tried it I plugged into a defective USB adapter.  But now it's working.  So I can read the card using a Raspberry Pi.  I could probably make a copy of the system image over there somehow.

Not to change the subject but I just wanted to suggest that maybe we're into the wrong hobby?

We should be getting high like Tucker Gott.  I've been watching his channel for years now.  I'd love to have a paramotor.  It's gotta be the best hobby ever.

I think of them as a sky bike.  A motorcycle in the air.  Although, it's really more like riding a lawn chair hanging by a few threads at 5,000 feet with a fan strapped on your back.  😮  Gotta love it!

@robo-pi

This gets even stranger!  I found a backuo of a Nano SD Card on my Win10 desktop.  So that had to be made with Win32DiskImager and that means it was readable by Windows 10.  I used that image to write to a card that was the same size as the image.  I then put that into the Nano and it booted just fine.  However, the "newly" imaged SD Caed is now not readable by Windows.

That indicates to me anyway, especially since RoboPi seems to now have this same thing in front of him, that something in a Windows update might have changed how we read SD Cards.

Posted by: @codecage

something in a Windows update might have changed how we read SD Cards.

👍 👍 👍  That's the most likely suspect I would think.

Because I know for certain that I was making back up system disks of Nano system cards before.  There can be no question about that because the images are still on my hard drive.  And these are clearly images that I backed up and named, they are not images that I downloaded from somewhere.

I wouldn't have marked it as "barebones" system image if I hadn't already set it up in the Jetson Nano.  Because what I mean by "barebones" is a system I have already configured and installed my "barebones" software packages onto.

So they had to have been read from an already configured Nano SD system card that had been running in the Jetson Nano for a while before I made the back up image.

Besides, I remember having to only read the first drive letter to get the whole shebang.  I know my memory is failing, but it's not completely kaput yet. 🤣 

I'm certain that I had backed up Jetson Nano system cards using Win32Diskimager before.  Not that long ago either.

So you're probably right Steve.  This is Big Brother Microsoft messing with us again.

Although they probably aren't even aware that they are causing these kinds of problems.   Or maybe they did it on purpose?  Only the Shadow knows.

In any case, I'm in the same boat with you guys now.  Windows no longer recognizes the Nano system SD cards.

Thank Aukey for the cloning machine and thank the people who make the SD-to-SATA adapter cards.  That system actually works better anyway. 😊 

Just put the cards in the cloning machine, push the button, and go mow the lawn or do something else useful.  When you come back you'll have a fully cloned system SD card. 😎 

Can't beat that. 👍 

~~~~~

By the way, I just realized, that DISKS tool I told Spyder to use will read a system image and restore it.  I haven't tried using it for that, but I did just check and it does have "Create Disk Image" and "Restore Disk Image" on the menu.  So it looks like it should do it.

Chose Add/Remove Programs. Type in "gnome-disk-utility"

It should come up as gnome-disk-utilty-3.30.2-3

I'll have to experiment with that later, it looks like it should do it.

Right now I'm going to clone a Raspbian card in the cloning machine whilst I mow the lawn.  🥂 

@robo-pi

When you get your grass cut, just keep the mower pointed toward GA!  LOL 🤣