On 7/1/2010 8:18 AM, Saturn2888 wrote: > > Can't I just dd the entire partition or that one directory into a file?
If it will fit and you unmount the partition during the copy, that would be fine. You'd have to copy back to a partition or loopback-mount the file before being able to access it, though. And be aware that if you overwrite your previous copy on the next run and the source drive fails before the copy completes you won't have anything usable left. Note that the problem with file-oriented copies that is being discussed is actually a scaling issue handling the large number of hardlinks. For a small system with a relatively large amount of RAM, you might be able to use rsync -aH across the whole archive. At some large number of files this becomes impractical - but it is so much easier that I'd try it first. You should also make sure nothing changes during an rsync attempt since the hardlink tracking could miss if it does. -- Les Mikesell lesmikes...@gmail.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.net email is sponsored by Sprint What will you do first with EVO, the first 4G phone? Visit sprint.com/first -- http://p.sf.net/sfu/sprint-com-first _______________________________________________ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki: http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/