Hash of a Cloned Dr...
 
Notifications
Clear all

Hash of a Cloned Drive

3 Posts
3 Users
0 Reactions
2,705 Views
(@atothepower4)
New Member
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 1
Topic starter  

Is the hash of a cloned drive and the original drive same or different considering that they have same make, model, capacity? (Drive can be Pendrive, HDD, SSD or any storage media)


   
Quote
Passmark
(@passmark)
Reputable Member
Joined: 14 years ago
Posts: 376
 

If it was a real clone (i.e all partitions and all unpartitioned space were copied) and drive sizes are exactly identical, then yes, hash should be the same.


   
ReplyQuote
(@mscotgrove)
Prominent Member
Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 940
 

If a single bit is different between the original disk and the clone, the hash will be different.  It is there essential that the clone drive only every accessed with a write blocker.  

If a drive is mounted, the operating system might well change a date or a flag somewhere, and hence kill any hash value.

 

The make model, capacity is not relevant.  The only important factor is the length of the data being hashed.  Thus you could clone a 1TB drive to a 2TB drive.  As long as you then only hashed the 1TB partition it would be the same.  If you tried to hash the 2TB drive, then obviously the hash will be different.


   
ReplyQuote
Share: