Question

4

Cloning with DD command

rated 0 times [ 4] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 19964 / 1 Year ago, mon, january 9, 2023, 5:32:27

How can I backup a partition (not the whole disk) to another partition on an external hard-disk using DD?

I achieved this with the following command:

sudo dd if=/dev/sda6 of=/dev/sdb3 bs=1M

However my requirements are:

I need to backup /dev/sda6 and store that as an image (.img) file in /dev/sdb3

Preferably as a compressed (.gz) image file (this is actually what I am trying to achieve)

(Here are my foolish attempts that, obviously, didn't work:

sudo dd if=/dev/sda6 of=/dev/sdb3/backup.img bs=4096 conv=notrunc,noerror



sudo dd bs=1M if=/dev/sda6 | gzip -c > /dev/sdb3/backup.gz

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lasagnerhead

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answered 1 Year ago tresein · Accepted Answer

Unless /dev/sdb3 is actually mounted on /dev/sdb3 ( I doubt it, please research a bit on devices and mount points), you'd need to:

Find out where /dev/sdb3 is mounted. Use the mount command for this. Assume that /dev/sdb3 is mounted in /home.

Point your file writing to that place:

sudo dd if=/dev/sda6 of=/home/backup.img

Once done, verify the img file contains what you expect.

Also, is there any need to back up the entire partition? I usually find it easier and more useful to back up files using rsync or something similar, then if needed compressing the resulting backup directory. But this is really up to you.