On 9/6/19 7:48 PM, Cameron Simpson wrote:
On 06Sep2019 19:07, ToddAndMargo ToddAndMargo@zoho.com wrote:
I have a fedora 30 bootable flash drive. /dev/sda5 is my "Linux Swap". To zero out my swap space to make it more friendly with gzip?
You could, you know, just skip that partition. Do distinct dds for each partition instead of the whole drive.
I would try just dd'ing /dev/zero across it, but I am afraid I might break some file structure or some other stuff.
Sure; Linux swap partitions have a little header. But it is transient data and unimportant. Zero it all. Run "mkswap" on the swap partition after restore before use. Or zero it, run mkswap, then dd, if you want a totally "clean" usable image file.
Also, stick a -v in your gzip, you'll get a report of overall compression achieved.
Cheers, Cameron Simpson cs@cskk.id.au
Hi Cameron,
The idea is to make a single big blast of the entire stick. This so I can restore it when Widows Nein (w10) corrupts it.
I try to remember to power off W-No before putting it in but I don't always remember and some time I forget to disable Fast Boot first, in which case Widows was never actually off and has at my drive.
Do I understand that dd'ing zeros across it will make it so I have to run mkswap after restoring?
How about running mkswap on it before dd'ing it?
Thank you for the help! -T