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Re: Low-level format / hd copying



On Wed, 6 May 1998, Itamar S.-T. wrote:

> Two questions:
> 
> 1. How can I do a low-level format on a harddisk?  I haven't been able to 
> find a utility to do this.

that's a VERY serious step. I donno if such a util exists for linux, but I
sure as hell wouldn't trust a linux server installed on a disk that needed
a low-level format at any point in it's life.

> 
> 2. If I want to make an exact copy of a harddisk, I should do something 
> like
> 
>      dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb1 bs=1024
> 
> right?  If not, what is the best method (which would preserve pewmissions 
> etc.)?

you could, if both partitions were the same size and both unmounted. I
copied entire 9 gig disks that way (partition table included, I did the
entire drive)

however if you need to do the root or a mounted directory it's really
tricky (you need to remount as read-only and other problems). I sugest
that you try "cp -a" for small directory trees, and tar for larger
directories or entire filesystems, as an example I'll copy root to a
second partition:

$ mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/tmp1
$ cd /
$ tar clf - . | (cd /mnt/tmp1 ; tar xvpf - )

here I tar the root (keeping symlinks and dev files intact) but ONLY the
root (the "l" option means single filesystem, so I don't copy /home for
instance). the p in the untar stands for preserve permisions. there you
go...


--
Ira Abramov    <ira(a)scso.com>     whois: IA58   (a linux enthusiast)

`Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed.'
                -- Darth Vader