so for backuping a gentoo installation on usb disk is still better to build
a stage4 with the script. i need to make a backup working copy of my gentoo
notebook box and i have only one disk drive. that is the real problem with
using dd or clonezilla...

2007/10/8, Brian Litzinger <brian@worldcontrol.com>:
>
> On Mon, Oct 08, 2007 at 11:17:40AM +0200, Beso wrote:
> > does this work from hd to external usb disk?
>
> dd will not work between disparate media.  It is even
> risky between different (capacity, manufacturer) drives.
>
> If by "this" you mean the latter stategy involving
> sfdisk/rsync/grub the sfdisk step will mostly not work
> between disparate media.
>
> > 2007/10/7, Brian Litzinger <brian@worldcontrol.com>:
> > >
> > > On Sun, Oct 07, 2007 at 12:49:11AM -0400, Peter Davoust wrote:
> > > > This may be a little noobish, and it may have been said, but can't
> you
> > > > just install the new drive, partition it identically to the original
> > > > drive and then...
> > > >
> > > > dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hdb1
> > > > dd if=/dev/hda2 of=/dev/hdb2
> > > >
> > > > so on and so forth until you've got everything copied? Or event just
> > > >
> > > > dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/hdb
> > > >
> > > > Wouldn't that work?
> > >
> > > The latter works fine in my experience.  I do it regularly.
> > >
> > > The downside, is that cloning a 750GB drive takes a while
> > > as it duplicates everything including unused sectors.
> > >
> > > Things like clonezilla just copy the "used"/active sectors.
> > >
> > > A popular way is to use sfdisk.  I do not remember the exact
> > > syntax, but a pair of sfdisk commands can transfer the partition
> > > information directly between two drives.
> > >
> > > Then use rsync to move the data across.
> > >
> > > You may have to run grub setup on the new disk too.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Brian Litzinger
> --
> gentoo-amd64@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>


-- 
dott. ing. beso