Linux Copy One Hard Disk to Another Using dd Command
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.
Login as the root user (use sudo or su command)
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.
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Tags: backups, bootloader, dd command, hard disk, partition table, partitions, raw format, root user, sda
February 5th, 2008 at 4:08 am
Hi,
Please check your steps. Instead of if & of you have written if twice