From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jan 3 19:58:59 2005 Return-Path: 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 4255E16A4CE for ; Mon, 3 Jan 2005 19:58:59 +0000 (GMT) Received: from mail4.speakeasy.net (mail4.speakeasy.net [216.254.0.204]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 082A643D2D for ; Mon, 3 Jan 2005 19:58:59 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org) Received: (qmail 11275 invoked from network); 3 Jan 2005 19:58:58 -0000 Received: from dsl092-078-145.bos1.dsl.speakeasy.net (HELO be-well.ilk.org) ([66.92.78.145]) (envelope-sender ) by mail4.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for ; 3 Jan 2005 19:58:58 -0000 Received: by be-well.ilk.org (Postfix, from userid 1147) id D2C4A69; Mon, 3 Jan 2005 14:58:57 -0500 (EST) Sender: lowell@be-well.ilk.org To: Eric F Crist References: From: Lowell Gilbert Date: 03 Jan 2005 14:58:57 -0500 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <447jmugu7y.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> Lines: 30 User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii cc: FreeBSD-Questions Questions Subject: Re: Backup with dd? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: FreeBSD-Questions Questions List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2005 19:58:59 -0000 Eric F Crist writes: > I've decided to try doing a complete system backup, attempting a > bit-for-bit copy. A friend told me to try the following: > > # dd if=/dev/ad4 of=/dev/ad6 > > Both drives are identical SATA150. Is this the best way? Not particularly. The primary advantage of using dd for backups is that unlike other methods, it makes a faithful copy of the unused bits on the disk. Personally, I've never found this useful, but if you need it, you need it. > I'm hope to > be able to do a daily/weekly backup this way, and if my primary drive > fails, switch the cables and just reboot. dump/restore would be the obvious way to do that. Note, however, that it doesn't help much if your machine is hacked (because you likely won't notice right away, and the "backup" will contain subverted executables and/or devices just like the running disk). Nor will it protect you from accidental deletion of important files or loss of the computer in a fire. You'll still need traditional backups for that. Pretty much the only thing from which the "dd" method protects you is downtime due to losing a disk, and RAID is more likely to do that successfully than copying the disk bit-by-bit.