On Fri, 2007-08-31 at 08:51 -0600, Karl Larsen wrote: > If you want to copy something big from one partition to another the > old dd method is for you. You have to do it right. This means that: > > 1. The destination partition MUST be at least a byte larger than the > source partition where the data is coming from. This is essential! > > 2. The dd copies everything including the file system. > > 3. Be ready to check the file system of the copy with fsck. > > 4. If you are making a copy of an entire working Fedora system make sure > you change all the entries in /etc/grub.conf and /etc/fstab files to the > new partitions of the copy before you try to run it. > > 5. To copy a partition from the source, called /dev/source to a > destination partition called /dev/destination use the standard dd form: > > # dd if=/dev/source of=/dev/destination > > 6. Always run dd in the source computer. > > 7. Take your time doing all this. It will save you problems later. There > are a lot of ways to make errors. > > 8. Think of how dd works this way, dd see's the source partition as just > a pile of bytes. It takes a few bytes each cycle and puts those bytes on > the destination partition. When done dd reports how many bytes it found > and how many it put on destination. They are the same large number. > > > -- > > Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI > Linux User > #450462 http://counter.li.org. I'm certain there will be several posts explaining the errors in this document, so I won't put in any effort into things in that respect. Being a parent and grandparent, I've learnt that it's, um... well, "counter-productive" to be at all times critical or negative or nit-picky or, well, you get the picture. So let me just say that the benign intention here is well recognised and much appreciated. You're a pain, Karl, and you simply don't listen to anybody if you're busy doing your own thing. And that is so VERY frustrating. But it's impressive how tenacious you can be, and it's impressive that a man of your age is so eager and capable of discovery in things which are generally thought to be the bailiwick of the youngish, pedigreed nerd. And it's very appreciated when somebody who has solved a problem or discovered a new trick or in any way "built a better mousetrap" in our Little Linux World (tm) shares it with the community at large. Kudos. However, and this is not addressed at you specifically, Karl, but is more a pained wail to the ether, it's just clicked for me (and I mean audible click), that a scary percentage of "help" out there is just like this one. I've just flashed on all the problems I've had in the past, obscure or just burdened with pressures of time, where I've desperately looked for solutions, been overjoyed at finding something like the above, and then discovering that it's all bunk. Good heavens! No wonder people out there get their knickers all twisted about Linux. If 3 out of 8 solutions they find for any given problem are horse pucky, why WOULDN'T they be upset? Two brief points, and then I'm off to the weekend. 1. Karl, if you read all the posts in all the (many) threads you started regarding your little "new hard drive" adventure, really read and understood them, you'd discover how inaccurate what you've written above indeed is. 2. The above is now out there in the public domain, and someday, somebody is going to find it and think, "Excellent! I've been wondering how to do this!". And then they're going to have a bad day. Have a nice weekend everybody. Andy
