[SOLVED] copying drive using dd

20GT · 10-16-2016, 01:15 PM

I want to copy one entire drive to another, remove the original drive and boot from the copy. I'm not very knowledgeable about Linux or computers in general. I researched and found that the dd command was probably the way to do it. My OS is Ubuntu16.4LTS. The destination drive doesn't show up as mounted in Ubuntu but it shows in my hardware profile.

Is that going to matter when using dd?

my full hardware profile

original drive

Code:

id:	scsi:0
physical id:	1
logical name:	scsi0
capabilities:	emulated
**********
id:	disk
description:	ATA Disk
product:	HDS728080PLAT20
physical id:	0.0.0
bus info:	scsi (at)0:0.0.0
logical name:	/dev/sda
version:	A27A
serial:	PFD8T5SXRBY6VX
size:	74GiB (80GB)
capabilities:	partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration:	
ansiversion	=	5
logicalsectorsize	=	512
sectorsize	=	512
signature	=	54eda6e3

destination drive

Code:

id:	scsi:1
physical id:	2
logical name:	scsi2
capabilities:	emulated
**********
id:	disk
description:	ATA Disk
product:	SanDisk SDSSDA12
physical id:	0.0.0
bus info:	
scsi (at)2:0.0.0
logical name:	/dev/sdb
version:	80RL
serial:	163602453113
size:	111GiB (120GB)
configuration:	
ansiversion	=	5
logicalsectorsize	=	512
sectorsize	=	512

rtmistler · 10-17-2016, 09:50 AM

Hi and Welcome to LQ!

To do this, both drives are fine not being mounted and instead you use the entire disk letter, such as: if=/dev/sda and of=/dev/sdb.

Couple of very important things you should know about this whole process:

Copying a system disk this way is valid, however realize that it will copy the entire disk to the destination and then your destination will be a 75G sized partition. You can fix this using something like gparted.
You should not be booted and operating from either of these disks, therefore if sda is your boot disk, then you need to boot off of a live media such as DVD or USB, then verify that you can see the disks as you do in your post. Then it will be safe to do the dd command.
dd will need to be performed by root, and a best way to do this is to use the sudo command, but be fully aware that making an error will potentially be disruptive. if= INPUT of = OUTPUT, if you swap them and start the command incorrectly, you will have corrupted the disk you intend to do, there are no warnings nor protective verification measures when you do this.
Ideal command, given the architecture you've shown would be "sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb" with optional "bs=12M" if you wish to help it go faster, but leaving out the bs= argument is fully valid and I personally never use that argument much.
ONCE AGAIN BE CAREFUL AND DOUBLE CHECK BEFORE YOU HIT RETURN TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE COMMAND CORRECTLY SPECIFIED

rknichols · 10-17-2016, 10:00 AM

One other issue is that the copying includes filesystem labels and UUIDs. You should not try to boot the system while both drives are connected, since you could find the system running from the "wrong" drive.

20GT · 10-17-2016, 12:13 PM

Thanks it copied fine. But as you said the partion is now 30g smaller. So I can fix this without losing data with gparted

rtmistler · 10-17-2016, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 20GT

Thanks it copied fine. But as you said the partion is now 30g smaller. So I can fix this without losing data with gparted

Yes, and when you run gparted, you also do so using sudo. INCREASING is not so big of a deal and also very common. You'll be able to see the staged information in advance of choosing to execute the final command. Decreasing is more difficult because of fragmentation of data and the necessity to move information around to accomplish the decreasing. However that is not what you're doing.

20GT · 10-17-2016, 04:11 PM

this is what it Looks like
Id like to reclaim 27G

jefro · 10-17-2016, 04:32 PM

You can run a live media and use a tool like gparted to either add a new partition or move swap and expand the existing partition lower to fill space.

20GT · 10-17-2016, 06:04 PM

Im on live disk running gparted
I see the swap partition. when its selected Move is greyed out
it only has
Swap off
Manage Flags
Information

20GT · 10-17-2016, 06:18 PM

http://blog.mwpreston.net/2012/06/22...ut-of-the-way/

says

Quote:

First, resize your extended partition (not the one labeled linux-swap) to include the free space. In my case this is done by selecting /dev/sdb2 and then selecting the Resize/Move button.

With extended partition selected, Move is grayed out, only Manage Flags and Information are available

information on that partition says
my extended partition status says: Busy (At least one logical partition is mounted)

keefaz · 10-17-2016, 07:50 PM

use mount command without arguments to verify, eg type 'mount' in a terminal

rknichols · 10-17-2016, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 20GT

Im on live disk running gparted
I see the swap partition. when its selected Move is greyed out
it only has
Swap off
Manage Flags
Information

Your live disk must be using the swap partition. Select "Swap off", then you should be able to delete the swap partition and continue.

20GT · 10-17-2016, 08:44 PM

thanks Everyone I figured it out