Re: lazy old guy asks question

[Andy Smith <andy@strugglers.net>]

Hi,

On Fri, Aug 29, 2025 at 02:13:54PM +0100, alain williams wrote:
> If your purpose is backup - then you are *far* better mounting the disk as a
> file system and then copying files somewhere using tar or cpio. That somewhere
> could be a disk - although something like a USB memory stick would be better as
> these are more robust and smaller than a hard disk.

Though if the goal is disk imaging there are some complications with
tar:

- By default doesn't preserve extended attributes unless you make use of
  some quite obscure options that you'll have to look up in the
  documentation: --xattrs --xattrs-include='*.*' (both required, no I
  can never remember this)

- Doesn't make the destination bootable

Not even sure if cpio can handle extended attributes at all.

I think an inexperienced user is probably better off with a dedicated
disk/partition copying tool, or just swallowing the whole dd.

Thanks,
Andy

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