From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 15 16:09:41 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 5183916A420 for ; Wed, 15 Feb 2006 16:09:41 +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 41CD443D55 for ; Wed, 15 Feb 2006 16:09:28 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from joe@netmusician.org) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by netmusician.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 834B1730A4; Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:09:28 -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 20400-01; Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:09:27 -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 E52E67303F; Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:09:26 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: <20060215155130.12023.qmail@web51409.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20060215155130.12023.qmail@web51409.mail.yahoo.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v746.2) Message-Id: <6117CB59-04AF-4AA1-8BD1-A2F0BCAD744F@netmusician.org> From: Joe Auty Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:09:25 -0500 To: Steve Quinn X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.746.2) X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new at netmusician.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 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: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 16:09:41 -0000 On Feb 15, 2006, at 10:51 AM, Steve Quinn wrote: > --- Joe Auty wrote: > >> Thanks Steve, >> >> These were the exact instructions I started with, only on a different >> page.... >> >> The problem with these for me is that dump caused a core dump. I've >> been trying to run dump while booted up from a Freesbie CD, but I was >> getting "unknown file system" errors I didn't know how to deal with. >> >> I'm going to try g4u next, but I'm surprised that what I originally >> thought would be a simple task has turned out to be such an amazing >> chore =( >> >> > > Hi Joe > > Have you tried booting the system you want to clone into single > user mode and running dump fron > that file system? This would guarantee that dump understands the > file system > > Attached is my script if you want to give it a go > > Before you do anything though, I suggest making a full disk G4U backup > > Dont forget to zero out any empty blocks > > I do this under the operating system prior to G4U to guarantee any > unused blocks are zero'd > > dd if=/dev/zero of=/zerobits bs=1024k > rm /zerobits > dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/zerobits bs=1024k > rm /tmp/zerobits > dd if=/dev/zero of=/usr/zerobits bs=1024k > rm /usr/zerobits > dd if=/dev/zero of=/var/zerobits bs=1024k > rm /var/zerobits > > I hope this helps > Thanks Steve, but this is exactly the same script I've been using all along, while in Single User Mode. However, could you explain the zeroing of blocks, and what its purpose is for? Does this solve the problem of space being lost when cloning a disk to a larger disk? ----------- Joe Auty NetMusician: web publishing software for musicians http://www.netmusician.org joe@netmusician.org