Imaging Arcade (or other) Hard Drives using MAME's CHDMAN Utility
What You Will Need:
- An original ST9150AG Killer Instinct hard drive or MAME CHD image file (info only).
- An original ST9420AG Killer Instinct 2 hard drive or MAME CHD image file (info only).
- Appropriate hardware adapters - IDE to 44-Pin Laptop Adapter, CompactFlash card reader, etc. (USB adapters will work just fine)
- Basic knowledge of navigating your hard drive from within DOS (we will be working within a Command Prompt window).
- chdman32.exe - MAME's CHDMAN Utility for 32-bit Windows Operating Systems
- chdman64.exe - MAME's CHDMAN Utility for 64-bit Windows Operating Systems
NOTE: I renamed these to "32" and "64" intentionally for those who want a specific edition.
If you do not know if you are running a 32-bit or 64-bit Windows OS, use the 32-bit edition as it works on 64-bit systems as well.
These CHDMAN files are from the latest stable .130 MAME release.
Image files made using CHDMAN will vary in size and checksum data (based on data from the drive and version of CHDMAN used).
The CHD information for KI and KI2 (presented above) was taken from the 'official' CHD image files (pass CLRMAMEPro audits 100%).
Why Would I Need to Do This?
- You have an arcade hard drive that is not included in MAME and would like to submit the image for future development efforts.
- You want to back-up your original arcade (or other) hard drive to a single compressed file for safe keeping.
- Your arcade game's hard drive has died and you want to get your game back up and running.
- You want to write a MAME CHD image to a physical hard drive (or alternate media like a CompactFlash memory card) for use in an arcade (or other) application.
WARNINGS & DISCLAIMERS
Is it possible to overwrite the wrong drive with this method? YES. If that drive happens to be the one your Windows operating system
is installed on, then you will lose the ability to boot to Windows, and will be searching the Internet for disk recovery software
to recover your data. If you are not comfortable with this fact, then please just buy a KI kit or have someone perform this for you.
DO NOT *EVER* ALLOW WINDOWS TO FORMAT OR PARTITION/MODIFY YOUR
ORIGINAL/SOURCE HARD DRIVE DURING THIS PROCESS (YES, IT WILL BE RUINED).
Before You Begin: Get Organized!
- I highly recommend reading these instructions from start to finish before beginning. Understand the process before jumping in.
- If you are working with hard drive image files, copy them to an easy to access path/folder, such as "c:\ki" or "e:\hdimages".
- If you are creating hard drive image files, work from within the destination folder, and again, use simple, short paths.
- If you are creating a hard drive image file, note/record the size (in Megabytes/Gigabytes) of the hard drive you are imaging.
- Ensure your destination drive has enough available space (as many MB/GB as the original disk) to create the hard drive image file.
- Copy the appropriate CHDMAN executable file (acquired from links above) into your chosen destination folder.
Using CHDMAN to Create A Hard Drive Image (Physical Disk to a File)
- Connect the hard drive your would like to image to your PC. The simplest manner is via a USB to IDE (or SATA) adapter.
- Click "Start" > Run, and enter diskmgmt.msc. This opens the Windows Disk Management window.
- Compare the size of your source hard drive to the sizes of the drives shown in Windows Disk Management. Do you see your drive?
- Record the Disk Number that Windows has assigned the drive.
Your "C" drive will usually be Disk 0, and in this example my KI 2 drive was assigned Disk 1.
If Killer Instinct 2 is a 420.8MB drive - why does Windows show it as a 400MB drive?
Either ignore it, or learn all about it - Forever yours, Microsoft.
Killer Instinct (and many other) hard drives will not be assigned a drive letter.
They will be shown as unknown, unallocated, not initialized, or RAW. This is NORMAL.
- Once you have noted the Disk Number assigned to your drive, you can close this window.
- Open a DOS command window: Click "Start" > Run, and enter cmd
NOTE: In Vista/Windows 7, use "Start" > "All Programs" > "Accessories" > Right-Click "Command Prompt" and select 'Run as Administrator'
- Change to the directory with your CHDMAN file(s). This tutorial will use C:\KI.
This image shows our "KI" directory listing with the CHDMAN executables present.
Type the name of the executable (with no switches) to see all of the commands CHDMAN is capable of.
- To create the KI2 hard drive image, type: chdman32 -createhd \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 kinst2hd.chd
This process took the contents of "PHYSICALDRIVE1" and wrote them to a file named kinst2hd.chd.
The PHYSICALDRIVE attribute requires the correct disk number you recorded earlier from Windows Disk Management.
If your source disk number was 3, you would have substituted "\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE3" in the example above.
Congratulations - You have now successfully backed up a physical hard drive to a single image file.
It would be a good idea to burn this file to a CD or DVD so you always have a backup copy available.
Using CHDMAN to Write a Drive Image to a Physical Hard Drive (File to a Physical Disk)
Imaging from an image file (*.CHD) to a physical drive is essentially the opposite of what was covered above.
Notes:
- Your destination drive must be at least the same size as the original physical drive you imaged (not the size of the compressed image file).
- Start by attempting to image a hard drive (identical make/model of your original) before attempting CompactFlash or alternate media.
(If the above scenario works for you, it is likely that alternate media will work fine in your arcade game)
- Not all arcade machines will work with non-original imaged drives. They may reset randomly, crash while running, or not even boot up.
- Some arcade machines require modified boot ROMs (or other EEPROMs) to function 100%. Killer Instinct 2 is a perfect example.
Let's Begin! This example uses a CompactFlash memory card as the destination media:
- Connect the hard drive (or alternate media) your would like to image to your PC. The simplest manner is via a USB to IDE/SATA/CompactFlash adapter.
- Click "Start" > Run, and enter diskmgmt.msc. This opens the Windows Disk Management window.
- Compare the size of your destination drive to the sizes of the drives shown in Windows Disk Management. Do you see your drive?
- Record the Disk Number that Windows has assigned the drive.
Your "C" drive will usually be Disk 0, and in this example my 512MB CompactFlash card was assigned Disk 2.
If the CompactFlash card is 512MB, why does Windows show it as a 499MB drive?
Either ignore it, or learn all about it.
- Once you have noted the Disk Number assigned to your drive, you can close this window.
- Open a DOS command window: Click "Start" > Run, and enter cmd
NOTE: In Vista/Windows 7, use "Start" > "All Programs" > "Accessories" > Right-Click "Command Prompt" and select 'Run as Administrator'
- Change to the directory with your hard drive image and CHDMAN file(s). This tutorial will use C:\KI.
Here we have a directory listing of our folder with kinst2.chd image file and the CHDMAN executables.
The "-info" switch will show the specifications of any hard drive image file.
- To transfer the KI2 hard drive image to your physical disk, type: chdman32 -extract kinst2.chd \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2
This process took the contents of kinst2.chd and wrote them to the physical device "PHYSICALDRIVE2".
The PHYSICALDRIVE attribute requires the correct disk number you recorded earlier from Windows Disk Management.
If your destination disk number was 1, you would have substituted "\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1" in the example above.
Always "Safely Remove" your USB device from Windows!
(Right Click the USB icon in your taskbar, select 'Safely Remove Hardware')
If you receive a "error writing hunk" message, disconnect and re-connect your destination drive or CF adapter.
IF PROMPTED, DO NOT ALLOW WINDOWS TO FORMAT/PARTITION/MODIFY YOUR NEWLY IMAGED HARD DRIVE!
Congratulations - You have now successfully imaged a CHD image file to a physical hard drive.
Happy Gaming!
Questions about anything on this site? E-mail me: Admin
