Bug Hunter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Can I use DD to clone the entire hard drive?
yes.
> What if the drives are different sizes?
probably not, I've never tried that.
> Will it clone a 1 gig to a 2 gig drive?
Don't think so.
Now, for the longer answers:
I've used DD many times for all sorts of cloning and backup
schemes. Works great, just be sure you get the right device
(/dev/hda, /dev/hda1, etc), and be aware of what you said
and what you really meant ;-)
For cloning an install, I assume you could use that disk
that Mandrake offered to make so you could do just that -
clone an install. But I doubt that it would clone any
config changes you make AFTER the install. So, if you
want to clone a post-installed configuration, the safest
thing would be to buy 'n' identical hard drives, to be
placed as /dev/hda (or /dev/sda, or whatever) on the
target machine, with a second hard drive to be mounted
as /whatever which may be different size but does not
have any info you want cloned, install and configure
one machine, dd-clone the /dev/hda drives, partition
and format the /dev/hdb drives, install everything
into the cloned machines, reboot, and off you go.
I've not tried THIS approach, but it should work
just fine.
Another option would be to make /boot the identical
size on all drives (and starting at the same location!),
clone with dd that, and use tar on the rest....
I've not tried this 3rd approach, it may not work!
rusty
Rusty Carruth Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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