Jump to content
XPEnology Community

Clone/image USB loader?


asheenlevrai

Recommended Posts

Hi :)

 

I realize that the USB dongle containing the bootloader on our Xpen rigs is kind of a major SPF.

I guess I would feel way more comfortable if I could store a copy somewhere as a spare, in case anything happens to the USB dongle at any time.

 

Can I simply use any drive cloning app in order to clone the USB loader (or make an image of it)? Or is there a particular procedure to follow?

I'm asking this since not all partitions are mountable on Windows AFAIU.

 

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

 

best,

-a-

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/17/2021 at 9:05 AM, asheenlevrai said:

if I could store a copy somewhere as a spare, in case anything happens to the USB dongle at any time.

 

Can I simply use any drive cloning app in order to clone the USB loader (or make an image of it)? Or is there a particular procedure to follow?

 

you can use dd directly on dsm to copy the usb or unplug it at any time the system is not booting to copy it on windows with "Win32DiskImager 1.0" or other tools

Win32DiskImager 1.0 has a option to only read allocated partitions so the resulting image file is only a few megabyte (same as the original) and you will have no problems transferring it to a smaller usb

but imho you dont have to, the only thing about the loader to change is what you do to grub.cfg (and that should be documented anyway - or just copy grub.cfg), maybe you exchanged the extra.lzma for newer drivers (copy that too)

the only other part that changes is the rd.gz and zImage on the 2nd partition that is the kernel of dsm and gets a new version on dsm updates, as long as you know what dsm version you have installed you can extract the files from the *.pat file you downloaded (its just a zip file so you can use 7zip or similar)

 

there are ways to get around the problems mounting the usb with win10

1st partiton is only accasible with "as administrator" so if you strt your editor in that mode you can modify grub.cfg normally (or start cmd in that mode to just copy the file)

2nd partiton can be mounted with some added tools

its documented in the tutorial section of the forum

https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/29872-tutorial-mount-boot-stick-partitions-in-windows-edit-grubcfg-add-extralzma/

 

i also hat success completely getting rid of the problem by converting the gpt to mbr and back to gpt by using "MiniTool Partition Wizard 12", but other tools with that option might do the same trick

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...