On 27/09/16 14:47, Mark Rogers wrote:
I have a 2TB drive I want to copy to another 2TB drive. They're attached as USB devices to my Ubuntu desktop. I don't want to shut down and use a boot CD (eg Clonezilla) because I want to keep using my PC in the meantime.
Assuming I want to copy from /dev/sdX to /dev/sdY, I know I can use dd if=/dev/sdX of=dev/sdY .. but it'll be slow because it'll copy loads of empty space.
I know I can use partclone, which "understands" various filesystems and can skip empty space, but that won't clone the partitioning itself, nor I assume will it copy any boot sector stuff?
What's the bit I'm missing, and/or is there a better way?
Mark
I imagine that dd or partclone would be quicker overall than other methods, depending on how much unused space there is, but, if you want to keep using the machine, then they're probably out of the question. I imagine the reason for using dd or partclone is to get and exact or quick copy, but...
a simple cp or rsync will copy a file structure and file permissions and ownership if you get the right options. It won't copy blank space. It won't bit and exact copy (as in file "a" won't be on inode "235"), but all the data should copy. So why not do that?
This page is one of many giving ideas how to do it. http://superuser.com/questions/307541/copy-entire-file-system-hierarchy-from...
Good luck Steve