> dd if=${device} conv=sync,noerror bs=64K | ssh -l ${user} ${host} "dd > of=file.bin bs=64K"
Unless you need to encrypt, I recommend that you just use netcat instead of ssh, as it will be faster. I also recommend a larger block size. Using a 64k block size will take a long time, even if you take encryption out of the equation. You should also boot from a Live CD; using dd to backup a mounted filesystem can easily result in a corrupt backup image. Off the top of my head, I seem to remember Trinity Rescue Kit & Knoppix having netcat, dd, and ssh. The "noerror" conversion is unneccessary. If dd is giving you input errors, replace your hard drive and use dd_rescue to salvage your data. Also, I don't think you need to use the "sync" option in this case. I've never used it for my backups, and they have turned out perfectly. As long as you triple-check your if= and your of= before you hit enter you shouldn't have any major issues. :-) I also recommend you compress the image to save bandwidth and storage space, although bzip2 has a 900k cap on its block size, so any larger blocksizes passed to dd will be moot. dd if=${device} bs=900k | bzip2 -9c | ssh -l ${user} ${host} "dd of=backup.img.bz2" Then verify the image. on the laptop: dd if=${device} bs=50M | md5sum on the server: bzip2 -d < backup.img.bz2 | md5sum Someone please correct me if this is wrong. -Elijah -- http://elijahr.blogspot.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]