Re: Using dd to copy a disk.
> From moseley@hank.org Mon Jul 28 15:14:20 2003
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 28, 2003 at 01:32:06PM -0700, Alan Connor wrote:
> > > From moseley@hank.org Mon Jul 28 13:31:19 2003
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > Use cp -a . Dd is just a dumb parrot and knows nothing about filesystems.
>
> Well, I think that's the reason to use dd. I just want to clone the
> drive and not have to partition the drive first.
>
>
> --
> Bill Moseley
> moseley@hank.org
>
>
There have been endless discussions about this on various linux groups, and
the consensus is that dd is not a good idea for this.
I've tried both ways to clone a linux system and only had failures with dd.
You can do a perfect job (in my present working
experience with cp -a. Got a box right next to this one with the same exact
system on it.
About the symlinks that Ron mentions, I really don't know. Just have my own
experience to draw on. I guess if what you were cloning wasn't self-contained
that would be something to deal with. Something for a little shell script
after everything else was done, if it was me.
As for not formatting and partitiioning, I don't think I would try to do that.
That's where I screwed up with dd.
What's the big deal about formatting and partitioning? Takes a couple of
minutes with cfdisk and mke2fs.
On the other hand, I have use dd to clone boot floppies, so........??
Alan
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