How to duplicate a HD using dd

[jdow]

From: "Thiago Vinhas de Moraes" <tvinhas at techbyte.com.br>

> Sory for the OT, but does anyone the best way to duplicate a HD in
> Fedora, just like Norton Ghost does in Winblows? 
> 
> I tried to use dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb, but the proccess has never
> stoped, after a few hours. 
> Both are 40Gb hard drives, but from different manufacters. One is a
> Maxtor, and the other one is a Samsung.

If the drives are basically the same size with the destination drive
being the larger drive if you elect to waste some drive, then the
dd approach is the fastest. However it is best to add a suitable
"bs=8225280" or if you don't wish to be so profligate with memory
"bs=131072" should be nearly as fast.

"dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb bs=131072", for example

{^_^}