DISK PARTITIONS ON PC/MAC

I have loads od MPC3000 zips with the classic 4 partition on which I want to back up and transfer to my make. Is there any software that can read all partitions on the drive.

I think Chicken Systems Translator should be able to read those.

mikedean wrote:I think Chicken Systems Translator should be able to read those.

Nope ... Rubber Chook is down for the count on this one.

Garth has had this in beta since day one with no joy.

The mounting of all partitions of an MPC disk is tricky business.

Rohan.

Woops my bad.

The problem is Windows. I transfer to/from any partition under Linux without any problems.

Hey Mike, so you can make copies of partitioned MPC 3000 Zips by just dragging the files to the HD then to a new Zip in Linux?

I've been considering how to make a backup of my 60 zips, with 20 partitions, and this linux news is the most promising I've heard.

Would it be possible to have a Linux Boot disk for a PC then doing all the zip copying to the HD, making a copy zip, then reboot back in XP? Or would one need to set up a dual boot system on the PC?

Im running mac OSX so not quite sure what to use.


Macman

macman wrote:Im running mac OSX so not quite sure what to use.


Macman

Would like to know as well running mac OSX too.

Fuk that I asked first.

elmacaco wrote:Hey Mike, so you can make copies of partitioned MPC 3000 Zips by just dragging the files to the HD then to a new Zip in Linux?

I've been considering how to make a backup of my 60 zips, with 20 partitions, and this linux news is the most promising I've heard.

Would it be possible to have a Linux Boot disk for a PC then doing all the zip copying to the HD, making a copy zip, then reboot back in XP? Or would one need to set up a dual boot system on the PC?

Copying the "whole" zip on any operating system is not hard.

All that is needed is a good disk imaging utility.

Mounting the partitions and dealing with them on an individual level is the special part and very different from simply copying a whole disk.

Linux/Unix has the flexibility within it's design to be coaxed into performing individual partition level access.

Anyone who is a member of the AKAI-PRO samplers mailing list will have seen posts by Mike concerning this back in January 2005.

There is no reason why the method Mike explained back then couldn't be performed within the unix type environment of MAC-OSX.

As for dealing with individual partition in a transparent manner, on any platform ...

... you'll find out more about this soon.



Rohan.

For those who were not members of the AKAI PRO SAMPLER MAILING LIST Administrator, Mike ( MPC3000 ) made this post.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 12:40:25 -0500
From: Mike Goins <[email protected]>
Subject: [Akai] Mounting MPC partitions with Linux
To: [email protected]
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Here's a way to mount each individual MPC3k/2k partitions of the same
disk
under Linux:

1. Connect the MPC formatted disk/zip/CF card to your Linux machine
2. Until memorized, determine the offsets of each MPC partition.
a. This really only needs to be done once.
b. Image the MPC disk to a flat file using dd.
c. Using a hex editor, like bvi, search for text string 'MPC'.
The first one at the beginning can be skipped (call it 0).
d. Write down each the offsets found minus 3.
This should be the location of the hex value E9.
I will use xA40000 for this example which is a 10 Meg
partitions.
Convert these numbers to decimal.
2. Use losetup to set a free loop device using the offset of the
partition.
In my example the MPC disk is connected to /dev/sdb and I used
loop0:
losetup /dev/loop0 /dev/sdb -o 10747904
This creates a loop device to the second MPC partition.
(the -o is not needed for the first partition)
3. Mount the loop device to a mount point:
mount /dev/loop0 /mnt/mpc_diskB
you can even mount the other partitions as needed using the
losetup:
losetup /dev/loop1 /dev/sdb -o 21495808
mount /dev/loop0 /mnt/mpc_diskC
4. Read and write to the mount point as need.
5. When done umount and delete the loop device:
umount /mnt/mpc_diskB
losetup -d /dev/loop0

Most of the work is determining where the offsets are. It is even
possible to
set the loop device on the flat image file and mounting from there.
But that
would require dd'ing the image back to the drive. Not a big deal
though.

I may even find a way to search through the disk dev file to return the
offsets. From there it would be possible to script the entire process
and
automatically mount all the partitions. Some of this can be set in the
fstab
file and the -F option used for losetup.
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Rohan.

yeah but putting a disk with years worth of work into a zip drive connected to a XP machine is kinda scary, with that fuct up writing thing it does, and I am not sure if I did that the MPC editor XP format would save it or overwrite my files.

I just want the whole disk, partitions and all.

elmacaco wrote:yeah but putting a disk with years worth of work into a zip drive connected to a XP machine is kinda scary, with that fuct up writing thing it does, and I am not sure if I did that the MPC editor XP format would save it or overwrite my files.

I just want the whole disk, partitions and all.

You'll need to add the special "novoltrack" registry key into XP that will stop it from trashing your MPC disk OEMID. ( www.midicase.com ).

Once you've done that.

For backing up as an image file the contents of a MPC SCSI disk:

1: FREE ...

http://www.emulators.com/freefile/gemxplor.zip ( needs ASPI ) ...
Use it to make a *.DSK image file of your connected SCSI drive.
Or use it to send the *.DSK file to your connected SCSI device.
I suggest practicing with a non-mpc disk first time around. Use it's "PHYSICAL DEVICE" options when transfering images. Don't try pulling individual files with it.

2: Minimal $$$

http://zicweb.com/disk2file/
Intstructions available at the web site.

3: Expensive and complete over-kill ...

http://www.winhex.com
Forensic utility that can image drives like nothing else.

4: The best option for 99% of Windows based MPC users.

http://www.midicase.com
The MPC Editor has a disk back up and restore function.

Hope this helps.

Rohan.

Holy Sh:t!! I can't believe I missed that in the editor!!

Damn, Time to read the manual again!

THanks Rohan, that was thorough and so well put.

lol@ "3: Expensive and complete over-kill ... "

elmacaco wrote:lol@ "3: Expensive and complete over-kill ... "

Only if you don't need all of the superb features this program offers.



WINHEX = AMAZING !!! ( If you need that kind of thing ).

Rohan.