[TriLUG] image of hard drive question

[Joseph Mack NA3T]

On Fri, 21 Dec 2012, James Jones wrote:

> Joseph,
>
> That is encouraging information. Now it is off to purchase 
> a hard drive.

I get mine from Intrex. They have an extended return time 
(3weeks?) incase the drive has problems. This gives you time 
to run `badblocks -swv` on it before you start using it.

> Any comments, pitfalls during the imaging routine that I 
> should be looking for or trying to avoid?

I use dd on a live CD (systemrescue 
http://www.sysresccd.org/SystemRescueCd_Homepage). I boot 
off the CD, dd the image to my backup drive, then mount the 
image and fill the empty space with zeroes.

You know what dd does and you aren't dependant on anyone 
else to use it.

I run smartmontools on my drives once a month. It only 
catches problems about half the time, but it's better than 
nothing. Unfortunately you can't run smartmontools through a 
USB connection, so you won't get any info on your backup 
drive. I have this problem here. It's just life.

Joe

-- 
Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant map
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