Are Optiplex's beasts to clone, or am I just strange?

[Jayce]

I'm trying to use CloneZilla LiveCD to pull an image off of an Optiplex 740 loaded with XP Pro SP3. It has a SATA drive. I can't get CloneZilla to pull an image. It just cycles through and never responds to the hardware. I can get CloneZilla past many prompts until I get to where I have to choose the drive I'm cloning, in which it just cycles through and never picks anything up.

I went to adjust my HDD mode to IDE Compatibility instead of SATA mode, but I don't even see the option in the BIOS. The best I can do with my hard drive is just turn the darn thing off.

I have 500 of these systems coming in next month. If I can't clone these, we have a problem. A problem that'll probably involve them getting shipped back and HP coming to town.

How can I work around this? Cloning these is an absolute requirement...

EDIT - Yesterday I was able to get through a few prompts. Today I can't. I'm seeing stuff like this, for anybody who understands CloneZilla/Linux terminology...

It gives me a bunch of lines saying ata2: hard resetting link, ata2: SATA link up 1.5gbps. ata2: EH complete. Then just keeps going. Gahhh!

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Couldn't you just use norton ghost??? Also are there any special drivers you would need to slipstrem into the clonezilla cd for that dell???

 

[Jayce]

Couldn't you just use norton ghost??? Also are there any special drivers you would need to slipstrem into the clonezilla cd for that dell???

Yeah, I could. But there's a small issue here.

Norton Ghost = $$
Clonezilla Live = Free



I found a solution to the problem... well, I didn't personally find it... but there's a fix. Sort of. I posted on the CloneZilla forums and somebody there who is one of the head honcho's created a CloneZilla LiveCD with the upcoming linux kernel from Ubuntu Jaunty (2.6.28) whereas the current kernel is 2.6.27.

Using kernel 2.6.28 worked fine, and it's doing the job I need. Something about the SATA controller in these Dells .27 doesn't see, but .28 does.

I'm currently pulling an image off of an Optiplex 740 now.

Woo!

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Chances are there is a SATA driver that was put into the new version, but yea I can see your point about the cost factor.