Data Duplication Village at DEF CON 29

[KnightOwl]

And we're live! The DDV is now taking in drives for duplication! Drop 'em off and get 'em done!

[The Dark Tangent]

I'm building the master drives now, and once done I'll update what is on them with some more info.

Remember, no Fry's Electronics to purchase disks in Vegas, bring your disks.

[Cyph3r]

Ahhh...the BBS days....that brings back good memories (and bad).

[number6]

This is kind of how dial-up BBS worked way back when... when questions came up, people that knew something about it could reply. People could help each other. Often good questions helped everyone learn something new. Everyone has knowledge about different topics, and a way to pay back shared knowledge is to share knowledge and contribute ideas to discussions. (Granted, it was never any kind of Utopia, as people resorted to Ad Hominem attacks, argued about opinions/preferences which are almost never changed through argument, and there was lots of bad information too.)
Happy to help. Good luck!

[Cyph3r]

Number6, thank you so much!! I appreciate the information. This is exactly what I was looking for. I will admit, my knowledge of HDD's has deteriorated considerably since I do not handle them as much as I used to. It has been a few decades since I have done such items (think back to when 256GB internal drives were cutting edge and not SSD). I have learned something new today. Awesome!!!

[number6]

It depends on what you mean by format. There is a concept of a legacy "low level format" and then there is a concept of changing the disk format from 512 byte sectors to 4k sectors, then there is the concept of formatting a "RAID Volume" (sometimes called initialization), and then we have the concept of formatting a disk with a filesystem.

From the to-post:

...
WHAT YOU NEED
* 6TB SATA3 512e format 7200rpm drive - one for each source you want

Many modern 6TB and larger drives support 512/512e and 4k sector format. (512 bytes per disk sector vs 4096 bytes per disk sector.)
Present advice is this:
* Unbox, and upgrade (HDD) Hard Disk Drives to latest firmware available.
* Make sure the disks are set to use 512e and NOT 4k sector format. (If not 512/512e, then change to 512/512e.)
* Maybe complete some vendor provided HDD tests to confirm the disks are good after any changes.
* Bring the disks with you and complete the process to drop them off and pick them up from the DDV (Data Duplication Village.)
* Avoid bringing used disks. If you only have used disks, make sure to scrub the disks of any RAID information stored on them and maybe zero-them out, then complete a full disk check. The process to zero out RAID data from a disk varies RAID controller vendor and disk vendor. If nobody has ever used your disks as part of a RAID array, then this shouldn't be needed.

Comments:
* Software designed to allow you to change the HDD sector size (512 vs 4k) usually include a kind of quick-format of the disk to support it.
* Not all disks support both 512/512e and 4k: some disks are only 512, and some disks will only be 4k.
* Changing the sector size of HDD usually results in total loss of data on the HDD.
* You do not need to format a filesystem (FAT-16, FAT32, NTFS, ZFS, EXT2, EXT3, ResierFS, etc.) as the "source" disks have a filesystem format already, and that format will be written to the "destination" disks receiving a copy from the source.

HTH

[Cyph3r]

Yeah, I have another question. I have the aforementioned WD RED drives. Do I need to format them or just bring them straight out of the box?

[The Dark Tangent]

Nope the drives swap into the duplicators, no cables needed.

[Cyph3r]

One last question...maybe. Other than the proper drives and updated firmware, do I need any other items? For example, will I need a SATA cable to connect to the drive or will that be a part of the duplicators?

[hdanielson]

thanks DT got my SATA drives will travel!!

[The Dark Tangent]

i just updated the top post with more details, I hope that answers all your questions.

[The Dark Tangent]

Correct!
Let me see if I can dig up previous years announcements on the forums.

[hdanielson]

umm and a Form Factor of 3.5

[The Dark Tangent]

Yes, SATA III, preferably 7200 RPM

[Cyph3r]

From what is described, there would be 3 separate 6TB disks. (Plans can change, and I don't run this event.)
(This assumes there will be an in-person event for 2021; as of April 14, 2021, no decision has been announced about this for DEF CON in 2021.)
(Advice provided here is no confirmation of any decision.)

One old piece of information to consider when selecting drives to bring:
https://forum.defcon.org/node/220674...786#post221786 (2015, 6 years ago from 2021):
"I heard from the Data Village folks running the machines that the WD RED drives had the most compatibility problems with the (older) tower dupers but worked fine in the newer desktop 1:5 dupers."
So, assuming WD RED drives are still available for sale, it may be good to choose some other 6TB drives.

More advice: upgrade the firmware on your drives before you bring them.

One other question. Does it matter on whether or not it is an internal drive or an external drive? I see the pics with internal drives. Should I plan on bringing internal rather than external?