dd use

[Rashkae]

Koh Choon Lin wrote:
>> ... and compress the stuff along the way:
>>
>> dd if=/dev/sda1 bs=1m | gzip -c > /mnt/sdb1/<filename>.gz
> 
> Without compression, the file would be taking up way too much space
> with the holes in the filesystem.
> 
> To restore, just reverse the input/output of the dd command.
> 
> 
> 
> Koh Choon Lin
> 

On the same subject, consider using ntfsclone instead of dd.  It's part
of the ntfstools package, and the man page has examples of use.

(dd makes an exact image of the entire hard drive surface, which would
only be useful for forensic analysis.  ntfsclone only copes sectors
currently in use.)