Hi

I have a partition snapshot stored as a image file (bootable linux binary) created using dd command. I compressed this using gzip & the file is (say) xyz.gz.

I do a 'gunzip -c xyz.gz | dd of=/dev/<dev-partition> bs=1M'
This works for me very well on two compact flashes sized 2G & 4G.
However, I tried this on a 4G Disk on Memory (DOM) & somehow
few files do not get copied, I loop mounted the image file & I do see those files, but after dd the files dont show up when I mount the partition & check the directories. 'dd' doesnt throw errors & says successful.

Any ideas as to why the files dont get copied. am I using dd without the right parameters? or any alternate approach to solve this issue?

Your inputs highly appreciated.

I doubt it is an issue with the unzip and dd.

To test I guess you could unzip it with test option.

Then just simple dd to the DOM. dd is a bit by bit copy so there might be some formatting or other things in your image that a doing this.

Might try a tar from the loop mount or other file based clone and may have to fix loader.


(or is it a disk on chip product?) Either case they might be funky with speeds and writes. Some odd ones might need bios settings or dma or other driver type access.

Thanks Jefro,

I did do some debugging with hdparm by slowing down the write speed, but that also gave the same result.

It turned out to be a result of a different partition util. We tried doing this layout using parted while the other ones were fdisk based (though it was of same size & layout), Somehow, the cylinders / offset were not compatible & we reverted back to fdisk based layout, its working fine now

Life is good