dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb
if=input (source)
of=output (destination)
Main Topics
Browse All TopicsDear, i want to take back image Linux HDD to other disk which i can use. my opreating system with that HDD is not working. i need to create disaster recovery disk. and boot from that and take image. please guide i can do using Norton Ghost or Acronics. please guide which software will be the best. and please step to backup thanks. its very very urgent. our service is down.
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
I did find more info on http://www.backuphowto.inf
Minimal linux knowledge is required really.. log into the system you wish to close and do 'fdisk -l' and take note of the hard drive detected. Then download a any sort of 'live cd' (such as Ubuntu, Gentoo, etc), open a terminal session and run 'fdisk -l' and take note of the new hard drive detected.
You should see a line similar to:
Disk /dev/cciss/c0d0: 146.7 GB, 146778685440 bytes
showing the device path and the size.
If the original drive was /dev/sda and the new drive was /dev/sdb, you would use:
dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb
as shown above.
If the drives shown are different, replace /dev/sda with the drive shown when you first did the 'fdisk -l' and the /dev/sdb with the drive shown when you did 'fdisk -l' the second time after connecting the new hard drive.
Business Accounts
Answer for Membership
by: SysExpertPosted on 2009-11-03 at 08:47:12ID: 25730856
depends on the Ghost version and the Linux partitions,especially if they are using Logical volumes ( LVM )
Ghost does not support this. You may be able to do a byte by byte image if the hard drives are the same size.
Not sure about Acronis, but you should read the documents.
In general a Linux dd could also be used
for Linux
the free
http://www.clonezilla.org/
is a good solution
I hope this helps !