Best way to clone a server hdd?

**pmeswani** · 8 July 2010, 12:27

Originally posted by suityou01 View Post

I need to upgrade a single disk server from 150Gb drive to 300Gb. I have the disk and just need to move everything across. I am going to take a drive image using DriveImage for Linux to a USB drive as a belt and braces measure.

One option is to reimage back from the usb disk, but then I will need to resize the partition. Again if I cloned the disk (disk to disk) I would have the same issue I suppose.

Anywho, what is the best (quickest/most professional) way to go about this?

TIA

SY01

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dd_(Unix) ?

**suityou01** · 8 July 2010, 12:39

Originally posted by pmeswani View Post

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dd_(Unix) ?

was looking at that but then

It is jokingly said to stand for "disk destroyer", "data destroyer", or "delete data", since, being used for low-level operations on hard disks, a small mistake, such as reversing the if and of parameters, can possibly result in the loss of all or some data on a disk.[3]

**doodab** · 8 July 2010, 13:02

Mount both disks using one of those bootable linux cds, create your partitions & file systems on the new one, then cp -r all the files.

**NickFitz** · 8 July 2010, 16:10

Originally posted by suityou01 View Post

was looking at that but then

It is jokingly said to stand for "disk destroyer", "data destroyer", or "delete data", since, being used for low-level operations on hard disks, a small mistake, such as reversing the if and of parameters, can possibly result in the loss of all or some data on a disk.

Top tip: don't make any small mistakes, then it works perfectly.

**Advocate** · 8 July 2010, 16:54

Originally posted by NickFitz View Post

Top tip: don't make any small mistakes, then it works perfectly.

Agreed; I'd go for dd and don't be a pleb!

However, if you are a pleb and have access to a forensics kit you could whack a write blocker on the drive...

**darmstadt** · 8 July 2010, 18:59

I've used dd numerous times for this with no problems but if you're really worried then you should be able to boot from a live CD, unmount your hard drive and then mount it read-only.

**doodab** · 8 July 2010, 20:19

Will dd not leave you with the problem of how to resize the partitions once you've copied them? is there a linux tool for resizing them dynamically now?

**AtW** · 9 July 2010, 23:49

FREE download disk copy, disk clone, partition copy freeware

**bellymonster** · 11 July 2010, 15:01

Acronis True Image has always been a firm favourite with me.
Sure it costs £30 odd quid but it works flawlessly and most would struggle to make a mistake with it.

But plenty of the freebie apps out there will do it just as well as long as you know what you are doing.

Best way to clone a server hdd?