Copying HDD in Linux
Sorry, I can't find a link but some Giigling might work. Here are the instructions I followed. Please exercise caution and make sue you have the correct drives identified before you proceed. Every step below is a cut and paste from my PC but I cannot be held responsible if anything goes tits up. Having said that it's worked fine for me even using Mint on a dongle in a W7 machine. I'm sure you'll be able to see around references to Panasonic and the specific HDD sizes. Caveat Emptor. Best of luck.
You will need a SATA interface to allow the Panasonic HDD and the new HDD to be connected to the Linux PC.
Now you will NOT be able to view the HDD data or copy the TV recordings onto a PC HDD to view/play on a PC
All you are doing is to make another whole HDD copy so that if your original Panasonic HDD goes dead you will have a cheaper way to replace it instead of paying £140 plus to Panasonic !!!
Now remove the Panasonic HDD and connect it to the SATA interface on the Linux PC. Also connect the new HDD to the PC.
Boot up the PC into the Ubuntu desktop.
Select 'system settings' then select 'hardware' then select 'disk utility'
This will show various items and also the 2 SATA HDDs. Click on one of the HDDs. One should show '250GB unknown format'
this should be the Panasonic HDD. To check you are looking at the correct one ensure the serial number matches the Panasonic one. Note the HDD designator ie sdb the s stands for SATA. ( hda should be the Ubuntu Hdd )
The other one may also show '250GB unknown format' but check the serial number. Note HDD designator ie sdc
Now this is the most critical part. You must be 100% certain that you know which HDD is the original Panasonic HDD and which one is the new one. Do NOT guess as you will end up with a non working PVR !!!
Now select 'Applications' then select 'accessories' then select 'terminal' Repeat this again so you end up with 2 terminal windows.
In one window type
sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sdc bs=32M ( it will ask you for the Ubuntu user password )
if means input file. sdb should be the Panasonic HDD <<<<< ensure this is the correct HDD
of means output file. sdc should be the new HDD
bs=32M will use a block size of 32meg.
( if you suspect your Panasonic HDD is a bit flakey then 'noerror' could be added. This means dd will not stop if it finds a bad sector )
So you are copying from the 'if=' to the 'of=' so ensure you have the HDD correct.
dd is the command to do a disk to disk copy. It will not display any information as it copies but
In the 2nd terminal window type
sudo pkill -USR1 dd ( you can repeat this as many times as you like while dd is still copying )
This will make the dd command in the other terminal window display information on how far it has copied. It may take a little while to show some info.
The dd command will take about 3-6 hours to finish the disk to disk copy!!
When finished you will have 2 HDDs that are both exact copies of each other.