Cloning an IceBox Hard Drive to a new drive
Cloning a hard drive will copy the entire drive to a new drive, this will bring across all of the IceTV software, all of your settings and all of your existing recordings.
To perform this process you will need:
- A USB stick with Ubuntu loaded on it
- A USB to SATA adapter (preferably a USB3 one)
- A USB keyboard and mouse
Table of Contents
- Preparing your Ubuntu USB stick
- Preparing your IceBox
- Booting into Ubuntu on your IceBox
- Cloning the hard drive
- Powering off the IceBox
- Physically swapping the hard drives
1. Preparing your Ubuntu USB stick
a. You will need to ensure that the USB stick is empty and at least 8GB in size (although at least 12GB is recommended).
You can download the latest version of Ubuntu from:
Ensure that you know where the file has been downloaded.
You will need some software to prepare the USB stick, for this we will use Balena Etcher, you can get it directly from:
b. Run Balena Etcher and on the start screen click on "Flash from file" and select the file "ubuntu-23.04-desktop-amd64.iso"
c. Click on "Select target" then tick the box for your USB drive
d. Click on "Flash!"
e. If you are asked to allow changes to your computer, select Yes
The Ubuntu image will now be written to the USB Stick.
f. Once complete you will see this screen
g. Safely disconnect the USB drive from the computer.
Your Ubuntu USB installer is now ready.
2. Preparing your IceBox
Ensure that the USB keyboard and mouse are connected to the USB ports on the back of the IceBox
Connect the USB stick to one of the USB ports on the left side of the IceBox.
Connect the USB to SATA connector to the other USB port on the left side of the IceBox, then connect the new hard drive to the other end of the USB to SATA connector.
3. Booting into Ubuntu on your IceBox
a. With everything connected, power on the IceBox. As soon as you turn on the IceBox keep pressing the 'Delete' key on the keyboard until you see this screen
b. Using the arrow keys press the right arrow key three times until the "Save & Exit" tab is highlighted at the top of the screen.
Use the down arrow key and highlight the option that shows the name of your USB drive (it will start with UEFI) and press the Enter key
c. The IceBox will then boot into Ubuntu, you will first see this screen, you can either select the first option of if you just wait the Ubuntu will load on it's own.
d. Ubuntu will then load, it may default to 4K, and it is recommended to change it back to 1080p.
NOTE: Loading may take a minute or two.
To do that you first need to select English and click Next
e. Then select 'Try Ubuntu" and click Next
f. Click on the icon that is a square made up of 9 dots in the bottom left hand corner that looks like
g. Then click on "Settings"
h. On the settings screen that opens, select Displays on the left hand menu
i. Select the correct resolution and Refresh rate from the drop down boxes. We recommend "1920x1080 (16:9)" for the resolution and "60.00Hz" for the refresh rate, then click on Apply. If it already at this resolution just click the x at the top right to close it and move to '4'.
j. When it asks you to confirm the settings, click on "Keep Changes"
k. If it wasn't able to display the correctly it will go back to the previous settings, if that happens try a different resolution and refresh rate and click on Apply again.
4. Cloning the hard drive
a. Click on the icon that is a square made up of 9 dots in the bottom left hand corner that looks like
b. Then find and click on GParted
c. When the GParted screen loads it should auto select the drive listed at the top right as "/dev/sda" with the following partitions (the Used space will be different depending on how many recordings you have)
d. The first thing to do is to create a partition table on the new hard drive, so select '/dev/sdb' from the drop down in the top right. Then from the "Device" menu select "Create Partition Table"
e. Select the "new partition type" of "gpt" and click on "Apply"
f. From the drop down in the top right select "/dev/sda"
Right click on the "/dev/sda1" partition (called "System") and select "Copy" on the menu that comes up
g. From the drop down in the top right select "/dev/sdb"
h. Right click just under where it says "unallocated" and from the menu that comes up select "Paste"
i. Leave all the values as default, then click on Paste
j. You will see this
k. From the drop down at the top right select "/dev/sda"
l. Right click on the "/dev/sda2" partition (called "Storage") and select "Copy" on the menu that comes up
m. From the drop down at the top right select "/dev/sdb"
n. With the "unallocated" space highlighted in orange, right click in the free space under that and select "Paste"
o. Leave all the values as default, then click on Paste
p. You will see a screen like this
q. Click on the Green tick icon in the menu bar to start the cloning
r. You will be asked to confirm the changes, select "Apply"
s. Wait while the clone progresses
NOTE: The screen will go to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity, this is to be expected and the clone is still going. To turn the screen back on just move the mouse (do NOT press enter or click the mouse, just move it) and the screen will display the progress.
t. Once complete you will see this screen
u. You can now close GParted by going to the GParted menu and selecting "Quit"
v. You drive has now been cloned and you can continue on.
5. Powering off the IceBox
a. To shutdown the IceBox click on the power icon in the top right hand corner
b. Then click on the power icon again in the menu that comes up and select "Power Off..."
c. You will get a pop up, confirm this by clicking on "Power Off"
d. You will see the shutting down screen
e. Then once this screen comes up you can remove all the USB devices and press the power button on the front of the IceBox to power it off.
f. You can now continue on to physically swapping the drives.
6. Physically swapping the hard drives
Instructions for performing the physical swap from the old hard drive to the new hard drive can be found at:
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