Unix disk copy using dd

[Doc Shipley]

Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
> M H Stein wrote:
> 
>> Assuming you have a third disk or a spare partition on the larger drive,
>> can't you tar the small disk > to a file there and then untar to the 
>> final
>> disk/partition?
> 
> 
> You're assuming that the small disk the data is coming from contains a 
> file system.

   Enering pedant mode, even if the source disk has a filesystem, tar 
can't grab boot blocks, partition tables, extended attributes, etc.  And 
various tar implementations have other nasty little warts.

   dd is about the dumbest** command on the planet, which is why I love it.


	Doc

** as in does what it does, does that thing only, and does that thing 
Very Fricking Well.