Using dd to copy a disk.

[Bill Moseley <moseley@hank.org>]

I need to clone a disk.  The source is a 3ware hardware RAID 1 array.  
>From Linux it looks like /dev/sda

$ mount
/dev/sda2 on / type xfs (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
/dev/sda5 on /tmp type xfs (rw)
/dev/sda6 on /usr type xfs (rw)
/dev/sda7 on /var type xfs (rw)
/dev/sda8 on /usr/local type xfs (rw)
/dev/sda9 on /home type xfs (rw)

The destination is /dev/hda

Can I build a new bare metal drive on /dev/hda using dd

   dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/hda

Will that work with the hardware RAID array?  If so will it also copy 
the MBR?

The destination drive will NOT be used in a RAID array.  Also, the 
drives in the RAID array cannot be used outside of the array due to the 
meta data written by 3ware card.

Is there a better way to clone the data on my RAID array for use in a 
stand-alone (non-raid) machine?


Thanks,


-- 
Bill Moseley
moseley@hank.org