Linux Copy One Hard Disk to Another Using dd Command

by nixCraft on November 19, 2007 · 17 comments· last updated at February 5, 2008

Q. How can I copy one hard disk to another using dd command?

A. dd command can copy disk in raw format. It will copy partition table and bootloader and all partitions within this disk. For example, you can copy /dev/sda to /dev/sdb (same size) using the following dd command. dd should complete with no errors, but output the number of records read and written.

Warning examples may result into data loss

WARNING! These examples may result into data loss, ensure there are good backups before doing this, as using dd wrong way can be dangerous.

Open terminal or shell prompt and type the following dd command:
# dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb
Where,

if=/dev/sda : Input disk (source)
of=/dev/sdb : Output disk (destination)

You can also copy hard disk or partition image to another system using a network and netcat (nc) command.

You should follow me on twitter here or grab rss feed to keep track of new changes.

Featured Articles:

{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Anil Waghmare February 5, 2008 at 4:08 am

Hi,
Please check your steps. Instead of if & of you have written if twice

2 Dorin September 1, 2008 at 6:58 am

Is is possible to copy one disc to another, a bigger one?

3 Shams August 17, 2010 at 4:16 am

I want to know the reply of Dorin’s question

4 Subsentient September 19, 2012 at 9:30 am: It’s probably best to copy preserving permissions (cp -a) your install to a new filesystem and reinstall the bootloader on the new partition.
Reply

5 Youpi February 17, 2009 at 10:23 pm

please answer Dorin’s question…

6 Andy February 22, 2009 at 11:03 am

I want to know the answer of Dorin’s question too. Thanks~~

7 Looo June 19, 2009 at 12:41 pm

I would also appreciate an answer please ….

8 Dorin June 20, 2009 at 6:20 am

I guess we will have to try to copy one small disk to a bigger one.

9 Jeff July 3, 2009 at 3:19 am

you can dd one smaller hdd to one larger hdd, depending on the tools, you can then resize the partition to fit the entire new hdd

10 Kerem ERSOY July 19, 2009 at 3:52 am

You can copy a smaller disk to alarger one. But initially the Filesyem over the large disk will be exactly s it is over the smaller disk. Then if you’re using ext2 / ext3 you can directly modify the partition size using resize2fs command. If you’re using LVM then you’ll need to expand LVM first.

11 Don Lassini July 21, 2009 at 3:53 pm

You can copy a small disk to a larger disk, and then resize the partition with gparted.
You can also copy one partition from one disk to another, and then resize that partition afterwards.
e.g. dd if=/dev/sdb1 of=/dev/sdc1

Again, you can use gparted to resize the partition afterwards.

12 Ashu August 22, 2009 at 8:23 pm

Hi…

I was looking if any one can provide me the instructions on how to resize my linux hard disk (sda)

I am unable to perform wirte command after I making the changes in fdisk /dev/sda command.
Please help me out with this.

Thank you.
Ashu

13 Arjan September 3, 2009 at 2:33 pm

You can try to boot your system with a ubuntu live cd, and start the partition editor (gparted) when the system is booted. Or use a linux recovery cd

You should not resize a partition you are working on (=mounted)

14 Hmm September 21, 2009 at 1:21 am

GNU ddrescue is better, since it shows progress, won’t make any errors, and you can interrupt it without worry.

15 Ashrock November 15, 2010 at 6:57 pm

I have a external hard drive of 250GB capacity mounted on /mnt/sda2.
The device is at /dev/sda2.
So, if i want to copy the complete hard drive to take a backup using this dd command.
Do i have to unmount it first and then use dd command.
There are actually two partitions in the hard drive i want to copy.
One is of 5.5GB other is of 63GB.
Can i copy both using dd command, if so, would i be able to preserve the filesytem for later recovery.

Thanks.

16 yashwanth December 14, 2010 at 8:18 am

Hey, my question is something different.

I have a 55GB hard disk … but it has only 30 GB filled with partitions and remaining 25G I have not even extended,
now my question is if I have one more disk with 49GB hard disk … can I copy the 30GB data into the 49G disk … ?

pls reply me as soon as possible …. I need it very urgent ..!!

17 onur October 12, 2012 at 9:03 am