Disk copying util under a Live CD?
in [UK Linux]
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From: Gordon Henderson on 19 Nov 2008 05:47 In article <20081118233308.6f5d90ee(a)folderol.ukfsn.org.ukfsn.org>, Folderol <folderol(a)ukfsn.org> wrote: >On Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:02:38 +0000 >chris <ithinkiam(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> A 'dd' copy of the disk will do a block by block copy of the disk >> regardless of any filesystem errors. You can then use the copy on a >> working drive to try and recover the data without doing more damage. > >This may be a silly question, but does dd also copy the MBR? If so >could that by itself be used to clone a disk? As long as you use dd to copy the disk and not a partition - however the destination device ought to be a disk with the same geometry/size. I guess it could be larger, but then you'll lose space on the new disk. dd will stop at bad blocks though, however dd_rescue to the, er, rescue.. Gordon
From: Sheridan Hutchinson on 19 Nov 2008 07:20 Gordon Henderson wrote: > As long as you use dd to copy the disk and not a partition - however > the destination device ought to be a disk with the same > geometry/size. I guess it could be larger, but then you'll lose space > on the new disk. Sure but once it's copied across one could quickly run Gparted and very quickly resize the partition to encompass all the free space. -- Regards, Sheridan Hutchinson sheridan(a)shezza.org
From: Gordon Henderson on 19 Nov 2008 07:47 In article <7d-dneq3PYg8mbnUnZ2dnUVZ8rOdnZ2d(a)pipex.net>, Sheridan Hutchinson <Sheridan(a)Shezza.org> wrote: >-=-=-=-=-=- > >Gordon Henderson wrote: >> As long as you use dd to copy the disk and not a partition - however >> the destination device ought to be a disk with the same >> geometry/size. I guess it could be larger, but then you'll lose space >> on the new disk. > >Sure but once it's copied across one could quickly run Gparted and very >quickly resize the partition to encompass all the free space. Then use the filesystem utilities to re-size the filesystem in that partition... Personally, I don't trust them. Yet. If I were copying data to a bigger disk (which I do from time to time), then I use cpio or rsync, but I've sort of lost track of this thread - wasn't it about recovering data? Anyay, cpio partiton, mkfs, etc.the new drive. Mount it under (eg) /mnt cd /old/partition find . -xdev | cpio -pm /mnt done. And usually a lot faster than dd if the disk is less than about half full. Gordon
From: Sheridan Hutchinson on 19 Nov 2008 10:41 Gordon Henderson wrote: > Then use the filesystem utilities to re-size the filesystem in that > partition... > > Personally, I don't trust them. Yet. The beauty of Gparted is that it will take care of all this for you, partition table as well as the file system. I have seen Gparted have trouble with NTFS partitions created under Windows Vista, however as long as you've got backups then it's less of an issue. -- Regards, Sheridan Hutchinson sheridan(a)shezza.org
From: Folderol on 19 Nov 2008 11:37
On Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:47:10 +0000 (UTC) Gordon Henderson <gordon+usenet(a)drogon.net> wrote: > In article <7d-dneq3PYg8mbnUnZ2dnUVZ8rOdnZ2d(a)pipex.net>, > Sheridan Hutchinson <Sheridan(a)Shezza.org> wrote: > >-=-=-=-=-=- > > > >Gordon Henderson wrote: > >> As long as you use dd to copy the disk and not a partition - however > >> the destination device ought to be a disk with the same > >> geometry/size. I guess it could be larger, but then you'll lose space > >> on the new disk. > > > >Sure but once it's copied across one could quickly run Gparted and very > >quickly resize the partition to encompass all the free space. > > Then use the filesystem utilities to re-size the filesystem in that > partition... > > Personally, I don't trust them. Yet. > > If I were copying data to a bigger disk (which I do from time to time), > then I use cpio or rsync, but I've sort of lost track of this thread - > wasn't it about recovering data? > > Anyay, cpio > > partiton, mkfs, etc.the new drive. Mount it under (eg) /mnt > > cd /old/partition > find . -xdev | cpio -pm /mnt > > done. And usually a lot faster than dd if the disk is less than about > half full. > > Gordon Thanks people (and sorry for dragging it offtopic slightly). dd is the answer for me then, it's only a 10G disk being copied, and I always prefer the simplest answers :) -- Will J G |