Hi All,

I am new to Siemens devices, please forgive me if this is in the wrong forum. I have a SIMATIC IP 427D with a partially corrupted CF card,i.e when it boots up the BIOS complains about S.M.A.R.T technology is predicating a drive failure. I would like to clone the existing CF card to a new CF Card then boot into Windows.

I have tried this using cloning software but the pc won't boot , an error pops up indicating a disk read error , press ctrl+alt+del to restart.

I am not sure i am doing the right thing with regards to clone or am i using the wrong cloning software.

Any ideas or thoughts?

Hi Riyaaz A,

Neither I know, what kind of software you used to clone the CF card, nor I know about how you cloned the CF card.

But you should verify the BIOS settings and ensure that your Microbox starts from the CF-Card.

Generally, for backup, restore and clone of SIMATIC Microboxes, I would recommend to use

• the software SIMATIC Image & Partition Creator
• and a CF-Card manufactured by Siemens.

It may help, if you specify the CF-Card type and manufacturer and the software program, you used to clone.

@xnor, Thank you for your reply, it is really useful and appreciated.

I have some more questions. 

Does it have to be a Siemens manufactured CF card?

When the system boot does it in fact check for proprietary hardware including the CF card?

Regards

Riyaaz

we used the following software;

HDD Raw Copy

EaseUS Partition Master

HD Clone8 

The CF Card was a 16GB store bought - SANDISK

:-)

Hello Riyaaz A,

I don't know about the internal structure of that card.

I guess in theory it must be possible to use it. But I presume Siemens did not verify many other vendors of CF cards about their functionality. Other CF Cards, like SANDISK, may work - or may not. It's your own risk to use this card.

Does this card provide S.M.A.R.T. functions too?

Is it bootable?

Do you compared the content of both CF cards Bit by Bit, to ensure that their content is 100.0% identical?

Can you boot from your CF card from another computer, e.g. via USB CF-Card reader?

Maybe Sandisk support may have a helpful answer about booting from your specific card?

(...these questions just came in my mind.)

regards,
xnor

Hi xnor,

Thank you for your responses, these are valid questions to which i will try to answer;

Does this card provide S.M.A.R.T. functions too? Not sure, i will have to check

Is it bootable? I do not think so, in theory when you clone the card it should make the system partition active and bootable as it cloned it from the original.

Do you compared the content of both CF cards Bit by Bit, to ensure that their content is 100.0% identical? From the software i used they indicated that content looked the same

Can you boot from your CF card from another computer, e.g. via USB CF-Card reader? Have not tried that but is a great suggestion.

Maybe Sandisk support may have a helpful answer about booting from your specific card? I will check with them as well.

Regards

Riyaaz