Backing up with dd, and creating a file system on a new drive.

[Fred Roller]

Ray Parrish wrote:
> Helo again,
> Sorry I haven't gotten back to this thred until now, but I have been 
> pretty busy around here.
>
> You were the person who got closest to what I wanted, but you are still 
> off the mark due to my not explaining myself well enough.
>
> I do not want to make an .img file, I want to make a duplicate of my 
> dual boot 160 GB main drive, on the 500 GB so that I can swap places 
> with the drives, and run from the big one instead, in case the little 
> one goes dead.
>
> I know dd can do this, as I have read a tutorial explaining how to do it 
> in the past, but I cannot find the same tutorial again.
>
> Could you please help me out with this?
>
> Thanks, Ray Parrish
>
>   
No Problem, Same instructions as before except omit:

3. mount the 500Gb hdd

	mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt

ensure neither drive is mounted in step 4

and your dd command now looks like this:

    dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=512 conv=noerror

assuming the your 500Gb drive is /dev/sdb

 From here it's choose your own adventure:
a.) If you just want to create an additional partion(s) for general use 
between the dual boot systems:

    fdisk /dev/sdb

then once the program is up:

    n

"n" for new partition and accept the defaults for a single partition.  
Understand what you are doing in this program or you could sh--can the 
drive and have to start over.

Once the partition is created type:

    w

to (w)rite to disk and exit the program.  Once the partition is 
completed and you are on the command line again then format the 
partition (assuming it is /dev/sdb3 and it needs to be formatted for 
both windows and linux) with:

    mkfs.vfat /dev/sdb3

reboot in to your linux boot and open a terminal.

    sudo mkdir /Data

mount the new partition:

    sudo mount /dev/sdb3 /Data

the system should auto detect the type of file system.  Edit your 
"fstab" as necessary for a permanent mount point.

or by GUI

b.)  Once you are done and while you are still in the terminal

    sudo apt-get install gparted

because the live CD does not ship with the partitioner.  Resize your 
disk or add a new partition.  Reboot and create the directory and set up 
fstab.  Hope this helps.

-- 
Fred
www.fwrgallery.com

"Life is like linux, simple.  If you are fighting it you are doing something wrong."