Using Multiple NTFS Partitions on Zalman VE300

Hello:

I have recently purchased one of these beauties and I am having a problem with it. I have a 750GB HDD in it that I have two Primary NTFS partitions on - first, active, with folder _iso for booting in ODD or Dual mode; second, inactive, that I want to use for system back-ups as a HDD.

My problem is that when I boot in either ODD or Dual mode, the unit boots fine but I cannot access the second partition as a HDD so I cannot save anything to it; the other partition shows up as another CD drive which, when I click it, asks me to mount a CD on it.

Does anyone have any idea how I can make this work this way? Or, is it possible that I got a dud?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and help.

Sparky

boot to what OS?

I have a VE200 with NTFS+FAT32+NTFS partitions, if booting to WinPE v2, I get the virtual CD and and three hard disk volumes as expected...  

Not to hijack this thread - I see a lot of complaints about these devices cables getting flaky.  How have your guys experience been with them?  I'd like to get one of these.

Hello:

 

I have recently purchased one of these beauties and I am having a problem with it. I have a 750GB HDD in it that I have two Primary NTFS partitions on - first, active, with folder _iso for booting in ODD or Dual mode; second, inactive, that I want to use for system back-ups as a HDD.

 

My problem is that when I boot in either ODD or Dual mode, the unit boots fine but I cannot access the second partition as a HDD so I cannot save anything to it; the other partition shows up as another CD drive which, when I click it, asks me to mount a CD on it.

 

Does anyone have any idea how I can make this work this way? Or, is it possible that I got a dud?

 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and help.

 

Sparky

Strange !!!!!

My Ve-300 has 2 partitions. When booting Macrium Reflect in ODD mode, also the other (no-active) partition is seen.

Maybe did you use the firmware for FAT32 and your 2nd partition is NTFS ?

Please, double-check this.

Not to hijack this thread - I see a lot of complaints about these devices cables getting flaky.  How have your guys experience been with them?  I'd like to get one of these.

I use the device with extreme care, even if, honestly, I can admit that the short USB cable can result a bit "weak".

For this reason, I use a more flexible male-female USB cable to connect the Zalman device to the computer.

ambralivio

I use a Y-cable on mine as power is the problem, particularly on notebook USB ports.

Hello, Ambralivio:

I have just checked the two partitions and some 298GB of unallocated space. The first partition is 200GB, NTFS, Primary, Active, and is where I have my ISOs. The second partition is also 200GB, also NTFS and Primary, Inactive, and is the drive I want to store my backups to.

Is is possible that I might have a bad unit? Does my second partition need to be a Logical partition?

TIA,

Sparky

@ TheArtfulDodger,

good , but what about the firmware used for the Zalman device ?

Read carefully my previous  post !!!!!!!!

ambralivio

Hello, again:

I forgot to include the firmware in my previous post: From the unit: V300_011_1187N. The file I used was ZMVE-300_user_fw_writer_02(R1187N)_x86.

The only thing I don't understand is the _11 in the unit and the _02 in the file name.

TIA,

Sparky

OK for now, so as for now we are sure that also the firmware is dedicated to NTFS filesystem (N letter in the filename).

Don't worry about the the two numbers (2 and 11) in the filename; I do suppose they are just related to the f/w release.

Coming back to your problem now, can you please explain how do you start the booting process from Zelman device ?

Just to help you on solving your issues......by using a step-by-step process.

ambralivio

Hello, again:

Starting from power-up:

1. I make sure the Zalman is in Dual mode, and Macrium Reflect is selected and mounted.

2. Power up - I select F12 to get the boot menu.

3. Once in the Boot menu, I select USB CD Drive.

4. That's all - the machine goes to the Zalman, loads the s/w, eventually starts. The two CD drives are displayed, not one CD drive and one HDD drive.

I am not sure what I can change but I sure will listen!

TIA,

Sparky

@ TheArtfulDodger

OK, the boot procedure is fine

Now, in order to go forward I'd advice to fix some points :

1. - Let's start using the ODD dual mode mode only (since the dual mode may have some additional problems) and Macrium Reflect iso

2. - During the booting (when you are in the boot menu) you should already see all the  units available from Zalman device, so there is  no need for now to finish the boot procedure

Once made the above, let us know what Zalman units appear in the boot menu.

Another point to know is whether you are using a laptop or a desktop with Zalman device.

In my case, I'm still using the previous firmware version (R1115N), so that it is also possible that the last one (that you are using now) may have some bugs.....

In this case, should you have courage and be available to downgrade the firmware in your device ?

Please, be aware and informed that changing the firmware version can be an operation with a very high risk.

ambralivio

P.S. - Sorry but I had to correct, since in the ODD mode it should be clear that you see the Zalman device only as a virtual CD !!!!

Hello:

First, I don't have a boot choice that lists any particular device, at least on the first boot menu. My BIOS is Award Modular BIOS v6.00PC. My M/B is Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 F2.

When I boot and hit F12, I bring up the Boot Menu. My choices are:

   LS120

+ Hard Disk

   CDROM

   ZIP

   USB-FDD

   USB-ZIP

   USB-CDROM

   USB-HDD

Legacy Lan

Normally I choose USB-CDROM and that will boot as before. This morning I tried + Hard Disk. This brought up a new panel I haven't seen before that listed the HDDs on the machine plus this entry:

   USB-HDD1: ZALMAN External HDD

But, when I selected that, even with the Zalman set to Dual-mode and Macrium mounted, it said: "BOOTMGR is missing" - which I would expect since the Zalman is not set up with a MBR.

Second, I am using a desktop, as above.

Third, I am not afraid of updating the firmware, but I don't know that I can find the earlier versions.

Another question, perhaps stupid, but can I load both NTFS and FAT firmware? Or, If I load the NTFS firmware, does that mean the first partition MUST be NTFS or can it be FAT? AL of these sorts of questions have come across the old brain in the last few days!!

Thanks again for your help.

Sparky

 

Normally I choose USB-CDROM and that will boot as before. This morning I tried + Hard Disk. This brought up a new panel I haven't seen before that listed the HDDs on the machine plus this entry:

 

   USB-HDD1: ZALMAN External HDD

 

But, when I selected that, even with the Zalman set to Dual-mode and Macrium mounted, it said: "BOOTMGR is missing" - which I would expect since the Zalman is not set up with a MBR.

This, at least, means that my advices above were useful and you learned that in dual mode the in-active partition is recognized. As a side note, booting from the choice + Hard Disk can give you additional possibilities for the Zalman to boot other virtual disks outside the _iso folder.

As per the "BOOTMGR is missing" issue, you already recognized that you cannot boot from an in-active partition......

Having said that, and considering that the in-active partition is rightly recognized by the BIOS, I'm reinforcing my initial hypotesis about some bug in the new firmware.

Could you please try to boot Macrium Reflect in dual-mode ? Is the in-active partition seen as a second CD ?

Another question, perhaps stupid, but can I load both NTFS and FAT firmware? Or, If I load the NTFS firmware, does that mean the first partition MUST be NTFS or can it be FAT? AL of these sorts of questions have come across the old brain in the last few days!!

Unfortunately NO, you can load only one firmware.

ambralivio

Hello:

I can't describe how appreciative I am that you are taking this much time to help me get this *&&^% thing going!

Could you please try to boot Macrium Reflect in dual-mode ? Is the in-active partition seen as a second CD ?

I booted in dual-mode and it shows two CDROMs. However, I also have two real CD/DVD drives so it is difficult to differentiate. But, I put in a DVD with some video on it into the first of my real CD/DVD drives and it appeared in Macrium as the second of the two CD drive. When I put the same DVD into the second real CD/DVD drive, it complained the DVD wasn't formatted correctly. So to my question from this:

When you boot into Macrium, do you get all of your real CD/DVD drives, the partition on the Zalman with the isos on it, plus the partitions that you are treating as HDDs?

I asm going to do an experiment - I'm going to load Ubuntu from the Zalman to see what drives it picks up. I'll let you know how I do.

Thanks again.

Sparky

Hurray:

I think I have narrowed down my problem to either Windows PE or Macrium. When I "tried" (as opposed to installing it) Ubuntu 12.10, it "found" both the ISO partition and the backup (HDD) partition.

Which version of Macrium are you using? Mine is Macrium Reflect Free Edition (64bit) WindowsPE Version 5.1.5732.

Now I will look for another program that I can use to clone my System SSD - any suggestions?

Again, I can't thank you enough for all of your help - I only hope some other lonely soul out there might read some of this and find as much help out of it as I did!!

I will reply further to this thread when/if I find an alternate to the Macrium!

Kind regards,

Sparky

Again, I can't thank you enough for all of your help - I only hope some other lonely soul out there might read some of this and find as much help out of it as I did!!

Welcome to the board !!!!!!

Helping people in solving his problems is one of the main aim of this forum.

On the other hand, I'm very glad to have helped you, especially because you accepted and followed all the advices I gave you, without inventing or changing things.

There are not so much people out of there "judicious", and having a cup in hand, as you seem to be.

Anyway, as your concerns are not solved yet, I remain available to help you further; therefore, I'll respond to your questions above as soon as possible.

ambralivio

@ TheArtfulDodger,

as promised, I am here again to respond your questions. I tried to post yesterday, but the site did not work well.

Firstly, I beg your pardon for having made some mess in one of my first post above (when I said to have successfully booted Macrium Reflect in dual-mode).
Effectively this result was true, but booting with another WinPE iso.

Sorry again for the inconvenience, though.

Now, after having made (in a much more neat way) some more experimentation (staying always in dual-mode) with different WinPE-based  and Linux-based ISOs, I can say :

    - Macrium Reflect (I have the version 5.0.5154_64 bit) gave the same your results (that is, inactive partition no visible), so I think it was not the best choice for making these type of tests with Zalman device
    - More importantly, booting other WinPEs (or Linux-based) ISOs, the results were good, giving a full visibility of the inactive partition

This means that, probably, seeing/accessing or not all the Zalman partitions will depend on how the WinPE iso was created.

Regarding the last your question about "cloning your system SSD", please make a search in the forum; you should find some interesting and useful posts/advices (from Wonko The Sane) about (Dos, Win or Linux-based) free tools.

Personally, I do prefer to use reliable products for this "delicate" task (for example, the commercial products from Terabyte -BIBM or Image for Dos/Windows/Linux).

Anyway, before going to decide the right tool for you, please move with caution along these paths !!!!

I do hope you'll going to better clarify your ideas/targets, gaining some more knowledge on the topic of cloning/imaging/backing-up, before to proceed.

ambralivio

Hello, Ambralivio:

Just to update on my search - I've tried a couple of other things I've found (Acronis Backup & Recovery [booted fine, found all of the partitions, but it seemed to do nothing - I finally gave up!], Acronis TrueImage [also booted fine, also found all of the partitions, but when I attempted to clone the system drive, it reported that the trial edition (which I had downloaded) didn't have that option - so I don't know if it would actually work!], and Partition Wizard [again, it loaded fine, found the partitions OK, but I wasn't convinced that it would actually clone a partition - the jury is still out on that one!].

Regarding your comments, first, thanks for all of the nice things you said - but you were the one that provided the help - and you had nothing to gain by helping me so I continue to thank you.

Then, I could not find anything by Wonko that discussed free tools. I haven't had a chance to look at the ones you suggested, but I will.

I think this would merit a short, Pinned discussion on the subject of cloning - everybody seems to have different ideas about it.

I will trudge on.

Sparky

Then, I could not find anything by Wonko that discussed free tools.

@ TheArtfulDodger,

Regarding the last your question about "cloning your system SSD", please make a search in the forum; you should find some interesting and useful posts/advices (from Wonko The Sane) about (Dos, Win or Linux-based) free tools.

Personally, I do prefer to use reliable products for this "delicate" task (for example, the commercial products from Terabyte -BIBM or Image for Dos/Windows/Linux).

sorry again.

I thought the thread was published in this forum and instead it was on MSFN.

Read carefully the posts 5 & 15, even if I'd advice "to elaborately study" the entire thread.

ambralivio

Hello to All Who Replied:

I have finally found an answer to my original question: How to use Multiple Partitions on the ZM300!! Thanks go out to all who passed on valuable information to me and I thought it only right to pass on what I've learned to the forum.

I read (and tried to digest) the material suggested by everyone plus some that I turned up accidentally myself. I kept coming back to two things that Ambralivio mentioned (probably in passing): "When booting Macrium Reflect" and "booting with another WinPE iso".

So, I wondered if, instead of Macrium being the problem, perhaps WinPE might be the culprit! So, I decided to boot the Macrium Reflect (Free) Rescue iso, from the Zalman again, but this time connected to a USB2.0 port. Lo and behold, but now Macrium worked properly, showing both the CD and the HDD partition!

So, now I needed to fix the WinPE. After doing more reading, I decided the easiest thing to try was to go out and get WinPE 4.0. That meant getting Windows Assessment & Deployment Kit, which I did. After installing it, I located the new WinPE.wim [Assessment & Deployment Kit\Windows Preinstallation Environment\amd64\en-us\winpe.wim]. Having this, I plugged it into the Macrium Wizard (Rebuild the environment...) and used this new winpe.wim as the custom base wim. That's all there was to it!

So, now it works like I wanted it to do lo these many weeks ago. My sincere thanks to all that provided assistance. I hope this might help someone else in the same (or similar) boat! Doesn't sound like much when you read it quickly!!

Sparky (aka The Artful Dodger)