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SD Card Duplication

Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 12:33 pm
by RWAP
For anyone considering releasing software for the Q68, I have now acquired an SD card duplicator, so can offer to duplicate SD cards for £1 each (plus postage - you supply the SD cards). :D

Re: SD Card Duplication

Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 3:38 pm
by Dave
I bought an SD duplicator once. I had to return it because although it copied all the data on the device, it never copied the boot block so it couldn't make bootable copies. If yours can do that, maybe you'd share the model and your experiences with it?

Re: SD Card Duplication

Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 7:22 am
by RWAP
Dave wrote:I bought an SD duplicator once. I had to return it because although it copied all the data on the device, it never copied the boot block so it couldn't make bootable copies. If yours can do that, maybe you'd share the model and your experiences with it?
It was purchased second hand to do mainly Linux SD card duplication. I have not checked with FAT formatted SD cards, but for the linux ones, it does an image copy so copies everything over. I think the problem might be with FAT formatted cards, it will switch to just copying the files over for speed - how do I test it ?

Re: SD Card Duplication

Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 9:57 am
by Derek_Stewart
RWAP wrote:
Dave wrote:I bought an SD duplicator once. I had to return it because although it copied all the data on the device, it never copied the boot block so it couldn't make bootable copies. If yours can do that, maybe you'd share the model and your experiences with it?
It was purchased second hand to do mainly Linux SD card duplication. I have not checked with FAT formatted SD cards, but for the linux ones, it does an image copy so copies everything over. I think the problem might be with FAT formatted cards, it will switch to just copying the files over for speed - how do I test it ?
Hi Rich,

I have one of those, it is a builtin SD Card reader in 2 laptops I have one running Windows 7, read and writes SD Card for the Q68 in FAT16, FAT32 formats, using the open source Win32 Disk Imager, link is:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

or in Linux, use the dd command.

Re: SD Card Duplication

Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 2:43 pm
by XorA
I guess this is the wrong forum to say no-one cares about boot sector anymore, UEFI doesn't use it :-D

(waits to be pelted by the greybeards)

Re: SD Card Duplication

Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 3:08 pm
by Pr0f
The QL does UEFI ? ;-)

Re: SD Card Duplication

Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 3:42 pm
by Dave
I know this might come as a shock to you guys, but I do use operating systems other than AH ROM QDOS! :P

I needed to copy 500 bootable linux SD cards for the Raspberry Pi.

Re: SD Card Duplication

Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 8:30 pm
by XorA
Pr0f wrote:The QL does UEFI ? ;-)
No, but it also doesnt care about MBR boot sector either :-)

Re: SD Card Duplication

Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 8:35 pm
by Dave
Rich's company services clients of more than just the QL.

Re: SD Card Duplication

Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 8:48 pm
by 1024MAK
Dave wrote:Rich's company services clients of more than just the QL.
I don't think any Sinclair systems (ZX81, ZX Spectrum) care about boot sectors on SD cards...