[svlug] ext3 and dd disk cloning

[Marc MERLIN]

On Fri, Jan 25, 2002 at 11:44:54AM -0800, Rafael wrote:
> > 	Does anyone know a way to dd a ext3 drive? I'm going to try
> > recreating the journal after the dd but I'm not sure if that will work.
> 
> Using dd to clone large disk drives is a waste of time and not appropriate
> IMO. In my experience it's faster to clone a partition table, mount
> partitions and tar or cpio files from one drive to another. This method
> would let you copy from a working disk even though that might not be
> desirable in some cases.
 
It's a all a matter of perspective.
I value  my time  a lot more  than care about  how long  it takes to  dd the
drive.
If you need the copy right now, sure copying partitions _can_ go faster (not
necessarily, because  copying files one per  one is slower than  copying the
disk blocks).
If you don't care how long it takes as long as it get done, and you don't
have to babysit it, dding the whole drive is better.

Marc
-- 
Microsoft is to operating systems & security ....
                                      .... what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking
  
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