[SOLVED] Cloning a drive.

13_ · 10-08-2012, 02:00 PM

@riwi &@schneidz, thanks for the links. :-)

smoooth103 · 10-08-2012, 09:14 PM

I "clone" my linux drive to a new hard drive every so often just by:

1. fdisking the new drive and adding a filesystem
2. cp -a /old /new

Update fstab/lilo.conf as needed.

I don't think this performs a bit by bit copy but this works very well if
you're just looking to move your slackware/linux to a new drive.

commandlinegamer · 10-09-2012, 07:28 AM

I use ddrescue to clone drives, as I'm often dealing with disks which have bad blocks, though I start with dd to clone the MBR, e.g.:

Code:

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=1

I verify the partitions are correct with fdisk, then cycle through the partitions with ddrescue, e.g.:

Code:

ddrescue -n /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1 logfile1
ddrescue -n /dev/sda2 /dev/sdb2 logfile2
# and so on

"-n" option means it doesn't retry bad blocks, and with the logfile I can stop it at any point ("Ctrl-C") and resume from where it left off later on.

basil_brush · 10-19-2012, 09:46 AM

If you wanted clone a drive for another machine, is there some adapter you could use for say ide, sata or usb device. Which you could plug into a usb port and then to the drive itself to clone?

schneidz · 10-19-2012, 12:16 PM

^ i bought one of these:
http://www.microbarn.com/details.asp...FQadnAodMF5W7w

basil_brush · 10-19-2012, 06:49 PM

@schneidz, and you would just mount it like any other device?

schneidz · 10-20-2012, 08:03 AM

^ yeah, the pc sees it like a usb disk (flash drive, mp3 player, fone, ...)