clone identical HDD and leave both bootable
 

Hi,
Just looking for some info on the steps to copy exactly the contents of a disk to another for use in the same system. I want to use this as a backup disk if the first one goes.

Both drives are identical 36.4gb scsi, I havent physically plugged the second one into the server yet (Compaq DL350 G2). There is only 1 drive in their at present so no raid to be considered.

The OS is SCO Open server 5.

I not new to Linux but I have only ever learned to do certain things like FTP at command line and I can ls and move around the filesystem fairly well


So my questions are:

1. When I plug in the new drive and boot will I see it in the OS or will I have to mount it?

2. Can I copy the first drive to the second using DD? (While booted into the OS?) and will both disks be bootable afterwards, i.e. can I remove my old drive and put my newly DD'd disk into the first slot in the cage and away I go?


Or should I go with a live CD and use something like Ghost?

Many thanks for any pointers.

Rds,
Owen.

(1) Depends on your distro; you might have to mount it manually; I don't know about SCO open server.

(2) Yes, but I'd recommend using a tool expressly designed for duplication, such as Clonezilla, or commerical versions, such as Acronis or Ghost, or duplicating the partition structure with sfdisk and then using rsync to copy the files over (my preference).