DD is a great way to make a mirror image from a source disk to a destination disk. I have two identical 500 gb wd drives. I backup using a Gparted Live CD as follows:
I mark the current 500 gb drive contain Fedora 22 by placing a file in the home directory as follows: touch 11-19-2015-source-drive This creates a file in the current home directory for identification of my current OS; because, the live CD will likely change labels of the two identical drive. I boot to Gparted Live CD’s X server default desktop, where I open a terminal window. I then open a terminal window and become root as follows: # sudo su This list the labels assigned to all connected disk. # fdisk -l The above command has recently been depreciated in Fedora, but should still work with the Live CD. Then I make a mount point: # mkdir /mnt/hd I then mount the two 500gb disks to find the ID file created above, and I make a note of the labels given the 500gb disk by the Gparted Live CD, and which disk is to be the source and which disk is to be the destination. # mount -t ext4 /dev/sda /mnt/hd # cd /mnt/hd/home/leland # list 11-19-2015-source-disk At this point I definitely know the labels of my source drive and destination drive. After this is done, I make sure all drive are umounted. # umount -a I use the following command to make the mirror image, (eg use label given to your own drives lol). # dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdc bs=64k Since I use 500gb drives it can take over 1 hour to complete the mirror image, so I switch to a second X server desktop and open a new terminal window. I use the following command to get progress reports each minute: # watch -n 60 kill -USR1 $(pgrep dd) After the backup completes, I disconnect power and cable form the backup 500gb drive located in a slot of my server. It will be on the ready should needed, or when the next backup is due. All I need to do is reconnect it to the computer and its ready for use. If the backup 500gb disk is to be used concurrently with the primary 500 gb disk, I change the UUID on the OS partition of the backup to eliminate possible confusion as follows: # uuidgen The above command generates a new UUID, which I copy to the backup OS partition as follows: # tune2fs /dev/sdc2 -U number-generated-above Although this may seen overly complicated, dd is a very efficient and fast way to copy any source to a destination. Regards, LelandJ > On Nov 19, 2015, at 9:36 AM, AndyHC <[email protected]> wrote: > > drop in your favourite bootable linux cd/dvd/stick; mount the new drive; dd > > - so they tell me <g> > [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
