[Discuss] Disk and dd question

[R. Langkamer]

On 1/5/08 6:25 AM, Patrick wrote:

> Hi.  :-)
> 
> I know;
> 	dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/path/to/file
> will read a partition whole, and pour its contents into a file.
> 
> Will;
> 	dd if=/dev/hda of=/path/to/file
> read the *entire* contents of the disk?  `Entire' meaning MBR,
> partition table, all partitions... the whole thing, as one file.
> I kind of hope so.
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Patrick.


	As has been mentioned (yes it will), one thing to be aware of, since dd 
makes a bit for bit clone, if you have a corrupt partition table or 
other disk geometry errors, dd will be replicating that too, so be sure 
that the drive (or partition) you are cloning is free from errors. Not 
much good cloning a bad disk (well except maybe in data recovery 
efforts). ;)

-- 

Sincerely,

R. Langkamer

cross platform specialist
Mac - Linux - windows

Langkamer I.T.
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