DD Rules

[Karl Larsen]

    If you want to copy something big from one partition to another the 
old dd method is for you. You have to do it right. This means that:

1. The destination partition MUST be at least a byte larger than the  
source partition where the data is coming from. This is essential!

2. The dd copies everything including the file system.

3. Be ready to check the file system of the copy with fsck.

4. If you are making a copy of an entire working Fedora system make sure 
you change all the entries in /etc/grub.conf and /etc/fstab files to the 
new partitions of the copy before you try to run it.

5. To copy a partition from the source, called /dev/source to a 
destination partition called /dev/destination use the standard dd form:

    # dd if=/dev/source of=/dev/destination

6. Always run dd in the source computer.

7. Take your time doing all this. It will save you problems later. There 
are a lot of ways to make errors.

8. Think of how dd works this way, dd see's the source partition as just 
a pile of bytes. It takes a few bytes each cycle and puts those bytes on 
the destination partition. When done dd reports how many bytes it found 
and how many it put on destination. They are the same large number.


-- 

	Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
	Linux User
	#450462   http://counter.li.org.