DD Rules

[Matthew J. Roth]

Karl,

For the sake of new users who are routinely instructed to research the 
list archives prior to asking a question, please explain the following 
points:

Karl Larsen wrote:
> 1. The destination partition MUST be at least a byte larger than the  
> source partition where the data is coming from. This is essential!
Why must the destination partition be larger than the source partition?  
It is my understanding that the ideal situation is for both partitions 
to be the same size.
> 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.
This needs to be elaborated upon.  Both "grub.conf" and "fstab" are 
critical files that may cause severe problems if misconfigured.  Since 
this is a new thread, you must assume a reader is unaware of the changes 
you are referencing.
> 6. Always run dd in the source computer.
Is it really wise to copy a mounted partition with a live file system?  
What if the file system is being written to during the copy?  The advice 
to use a live CD (given in one of the other myriad threads on this 
topic) seems more prudent.

Thank you,

Matthew Roth
InterMedia Marketing Solutions
Software Engineer and Systems Developer