From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Feb 14 17:26:18 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CD2DB16A420 for ; Tue, 14 Feb 2006 17:26:18 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from joe@netmusician.org) Received: from netmusician.org (netmusician.org [209.67.223.75]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7EF3743D55 for ; Tue, 14 Feb 2006 17:26:14 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from joe@netmusician.org) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by netmusician.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 176AE730B7; Tue, 14 Feb 2006 12:26:14 -0500 (EST) Received: from netmusician.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (netmusician.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 00651-06; Tue, 14 Feb 2006 12:26:13 -0500 (EST) Received: from [129.79.115.14] (jauty.journalism.indiana.edu [129.79.115.14]) (using TLSv1 with cipher RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by netmusician.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4DD967303F; Tue, 14 Feb 2006 12:26:13 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: <20060214170737.GA23816@thened.net> References: <39D18F08-5443-4642-AE0B-636415239F6B@netmusician.org> <20060214170737.GA23816@thened.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v746.2) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: <04548C63-4825-45B6-A9F9-5F44D4F17E8C@netmusician.org> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Joe Auty Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 12:26:11 -0500 To: Alec Berryman X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.746.2) X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new at netmusician.org Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: best approach to clone a disk? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 17:26:18 -0000 On Feb 14, 2006, at 12:07 PM, Alec Berryman wrote: > Joe Auty on 2006-02-14 11:49:05 -0500: > >> What is the best way to clone a disk in FreeBSD? > > [...] > >> Can I use DD on two disks of different size? Do you recommend Ghost >> for Unix? > > g4u is a very nice wrapper for dd. I've had great success with it for > identically-sized disks; there shouldn't be a problem if the target > disk is larger than the source disk, because you can edit the > partitions around and then growfs. > > Don't overlook tar, though - it doesn't care about disk sizes as long > as you have enough free space, doesn't care about partitions, and is > simpler in many cases. If you boot up to the fixit image from an > install CD you can partition and newfs to however you like and then > untar. Hmmm... Could you tell me more about how the fixit images work? I've never had to do that... basically, I just need something that will allow me to boot up into single user mode. I've been using the source disk in single user mode, and doing a mount -u / to make sure that it is mounted read only. Before I go this route, I'm thinking it might be wise to give "dump" another try from a working boot CD. What is the best way to create myself a boot CD that I can use to boot up in single user mode? As far as your tar idea, the idea seems great, although I'm not sure whether I have enough space to store both the tarball and the space needed to extract the tarball to. We are talking over a 100 gig here. Thanks for your advice!