I would like to duplicate / clone an entire Security Camera DVR hard drive for archive purposes.
I do not know if it might be written in a format that a Windows-7 PC would not understand.
Might any Forum user know if I can duplicate / clone the video on the DVR's hard drive using PC applications like Acronis?
As far as I know there are backup / clone software packages that just move data bits from A to B so should provide a security backup
Without knowing the actual format of the video stream it's difficult to speculate on how to produce steamable video from the recorded data, but this could be possible if there is a way to decode any security encoding, this would depend on the hardware / software package you are using.
Of course it could be that the recording uses a known format, and is unencrypted, in this case something like VLC may be able to playback the native recording
Look no further than HDD Raw Copy Tool.
I use this small program in a live environment using Hiren's Boot CD for my computer cloning needs. I can put two compressed image files on one 2TB Encrypted HDD. Just food for thought...
For your application it will work great. It's practically what the program is meant for... I believe the program just does what Windows DOS does by a sector by sector clone... It's just with this you have a GUI. Did I mention it'll clone SD cards and whatnot too? PlayStation HDDs, whatever, it don't matter.
- - - Updated - - -
Oh, if there was erased data on the drive, HDD Raw Copy Tool will clone it. Yes, it means you can recover deleted files from the cloned HDD. Deleted files, i.e the trash can is not a trash can. There is no deleting. It's recycling...
Quote