How to clone an entire disk to a larger disk and then offload?

What I have done is clone a small 32GB flash module that had three partitions. I happened to have a 32GB USB lying around, so I thought it might just work; it did not. It seems 32GB from Toshiba is a bit different than 32GB from Sandisk.

Anyway, so then took to a 2TB external drive and did the exact same thing. Specifically, I did the following:

dd if=/dev/sdX of=/dev/sdY bs=100M

aside Does the final block come across as a partial copy or is it dropped if EOF is reached first?

So as to essentially clone the entire flash module -- partition table and all. The 32GB -> 2TB was easy enough since the dd utility properly halted after reading through the end of the final (third) partition.

So, what I want to do now is just create a simple binary blob containing the entire flash image. My 2TB drive is now identically partitioned with respect to the original drive: sdx1, sdx2, sdx3. So, once again I just took to dd with the following:

dd if=/dev/sdx of=firmware.bin bs=100M

Doing so will not only copy the first 32GB I am interested in, but it will also continue on through and clone the entire 2TB drive, or so it did when I tried it. I can find the exact byte-length of the partitions of interest by the following:

$ lsblk -b
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdc 8:32 0 2000398933504 0 disk 
├─sdc1 8:33 0 134217728 0 part 
├─sdc2 8:34 0 2147483648 0 part 
└─sdc3 8:35 0 29734297600 0 part

A definite way to solve this would be to set the blocksize of dd to one byte and then set the number of blocks to read as the sum of the three sizes above:

dd if=/dev/sdc of=firmware.bin bs=1 count=32015998976

But I can't image how long that would actually take.

EDIT: A quick test of curiosity of the above showed a solid ~150KB/s transfer rate.

tl;dr How can I exclusively copy the first three partitions of a disk that is much larger than the sum of the partition sizes?

edited Dec 20 '18 at 7:24

Rui F Ribeiro

39k1479130

asked Mar 18 '16 at 16:33

sherrellbc

84331527

Any reason why not to make the block size 32015998976 and the count 1?
– Anthon
Mar 18 '16 at 16:48

@Anthon, that working depends on it 'dd' first reads a block into memory before writing it, which the documentation seems to allude to. I certainly don't have 32GB of RAM to spare.
– sherrellbc
Mar 18 '16 at 16:50

If you are not into buying more memory, 32015998976 can be nicely factored into 2^13x13x300631. Surely you can come up with a combination of block size and count that will fit in memory and is more efficient.
– Anthon
Mar 18 '16 at 16:53

@Anthon, that was the next step if this question did not produce any simple solutions.
– sherrellbc
Mar 18 '16 at 16:56

If you still have the original flash, wouldn't it be more easy to format the harddrive, mount it and then dd the flash to a file on the drive, possible one partition at a time?
– Anthon
Mar 18 '16 at 16:58

|
show 1 more comment

Anyway, so then took to a 2TB external drive and did the exact same thing. Specifically, I did the following:

dd if=/dev/sdX of=/dev/sdY bs=100M

aside Does the final block come across as a partial copy or is it dropped if EOF is reached first?

dd if=/dev/sdx of=firmware.bin bs=100M

$ lsblk -b
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdc 8:32 0 2000398933504 0 disk 
├─sdc1 8:33 0 134217728 0 part 
├─sdc2 8:34 0 2147483648 0 part 
└─sdc3 8:35 0 29734297600 0 part

A definite way to solve this would be to set the blocksize of dd to one byte and then set the number of blocks to read as the sum of the three sizes above:

dd if=/dev/sdc of=firmware.bin bs=1 count=32015998976

But I can't image how long that would actually take.

EDIT: A quick test of curiosity of the above showed a solid ~150KB/s transfer rate.

tl;dr How can I exclusively copy the first three partitions of a disk that is much larger than the sum of the partition sizes?

edited Dec 20 '18 at 7:24

Rui F Ribeiro

39k1479130

asked Mar 18 '16 at 16:33

sherrellbc

84331527

Any reason why not to make the block size 32015998976 and the count 1?
– Anthon
Mar 18 '16 at 16:48

@Anthon, that working depends on it 'dd' first reads a block into memory before writing it, which the documentation seems to allude to. I certainly don't have 32GB of RAM to spare.
– sherrellbc
Mar 18 '16 at 16:50

If you are not into buying more memory, 32015998976 can be nicely factored into 2^13x13x300631. Surely you can come up with a combination of block size and count that will fit in memory and is more efficient.
– Anthon
Mar 18 '16 at 16:53

@Anthon, that was the next step if this question did not produce any simple solutions.
– sherrellbc
Mar 18 '16 at 16:56

If you still have the original flash, wouldn't it be more easy to format the harddrive, mount it and then dd the flash to a file on the drive, possible one partition at a time?
– Anthon
Mar 18 '16 at 16:58

|
show 1 more comment

Anyway, so then took to a 2TB external drive and did the exact same thing. Specifically, I did the following:

dd if=/dev/sdX of=/dev/sdY bs=100M

aside Does the final block come across as a partial copy or is it dropped if EOF is reached first?

dd if=/dev/sdx of=firmware.bin bs=100M

$ lsblk -b
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdc 8:32 0 2000398933504 0 disk 
├─sdc1 8:33 0 134217728 0 part 
├─sdc2 8:34 0 2147483648 0 part 
└─sdc3 8:35 0 29734297600 0 part

A definite way to solve this would be to set the blocksize of dd to one byte and then set the number of blocks to read as the sum of the three sizes above:

dd if=/dev/sdc of=firmware.bin bs=1 count=32015998976

But I can't image how long that would actually take.

EDIT: A quick test of curiosity of the above showed a solid ~150KB/s transfer rate.

tl;dr How can I exclusively copy the first three partitions of a disk that is much larger than the sum of the partition sizes?

edited Dec 20 '18 at 7:24

Rui F Ribeiro

39k1479130

asked Mar 18 '16 at 16:33

sherrellbc

84331527

Anyway, so then took to a 2TB external drive and did the exact same thing. Specifically, I did the following:

dd if=/dev/sdX of=/dev/sdY bs=100M

aside Does the final block come across as a partial copy or is it dropped if EOF is reached first?

dd if=/dev/sdx of=firmware.bin bs=100M

$ lsblk -b
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdc 8:32 0 2000398933504 0 disk 
├─sdc1 8:33 0 134217728 0 part 
├─sdc2 8:34 0 2147483648 0 part 
└─sdc3 8:35 0 29734297600 0 part

A definite way to solve this would be to set the blocksize of dd to one byte and then set the number of blocks to read as the sum of the three sizes above:

dd if=/dev/sdc of=firmware.bin bs=1 count=32015998976

But I can't image how long that would actually take.

EDIT: A quick test of curiosity of the above showed a solid ~150KB/s transfer rate.

tl;dr How can I exclusively copy the first three partitions of a disk that is much larger than the sum of the partition sizes?

dd file-copy cloning disk-image

edited Dec 20 '18 at 7:24

Rui F Ribeiro

39k1479130

asked Mar 18 '16 at 16:33

sherrellbc

84331527

edited Dec 20 '18 at 7:24

Rui F Ribeiro

39k1479130

asked Mar 18 '16 at 16:33

sherrellbc

84331527

edited Dec 20 '18 at 7:24

Rui F Ribeiro

39k1479130

edited Dec 20 '18 at 7:24

Rui F Ribeiro

39k1479130

edited Dec 20 '18 at 7:24

Rui F Ribeiro

39k1479130

asked Mar 18 '16 at 16:33

sherrellbc

84331527

asked Mar 18 '16 at 16:33

sherrellbc

84331527

asked Mar 18 '16 at 16:33

sherrellbc

84331527

Any reason why not to make the block size 32015998976 and the count 1?
– Anthon
Mar 18 '16 at 16:48

@Anthon, that working depends on it 'dd' first reads a block into memory before writing it, which the documentation seems to allude to. I certainly don't have 32GB of RAM to spare.
– sherrellbc
Mar 18 '16 at 16:50

If you are not into buying more memory, 32015998976 can be nicely factored into 2^13x13x300631. Surely you can come up with a combination of block size and count that will fit in memory and is more efficient.
– Anthon
Mar 18 '16 at 16:53

@Anthon, that was the next step if this question did not produce any simple solutions.
– sherrellbc
Mar 18 '16 at 16:56

If you still have the original flash, wouldn't it be more easy to format the harddrive, mount it and then dd the flash to a file on the drive, possible one partition at a time?
– Anthon
Mar 18 '16 at 16:58

|
show 1 more comment

Any reason why not to make the block size 32015998976 and the count 1?
– Anthon
Mar 18 '16 at 16:48

@Anthon, that working depends on it 'dd' first reads a block into memory before writing it, which the documentation seems to allude to. I certainly don't have 32GB of RAM to spare.
– sherrellbc
Mar 18 '16 at 16:50

If you are not into buying more memory, 32015998976 can be nicely factored into 2^13x13x300631. Surely you can come up with a combination of block size and count that will fit in memory and is more efficient.
– Anthon
Mar 18 '16 at 16:53

@Anthon, that was the next step if this question did not produce any simple solutions.
– sherrellbc
Mar 18 '16 at 16:56

If you still have the original flash, wouldn't it be more easy to format the harddrive, mount it and then dd the flash to a file on the drive, possible one partition at a time?
– Anthon
Mar 18 '16 at 16:58

Any reason why not to make the block size 32015998976 and the count 1?
– Anthon
Mar 18 '16 at 16:48

@Anthon, that working depends on it 'dd' first reads a block into memory before writing it, which the documentation seems to allude to. I certainly don't have 32GB of RAM to spare.
– sherrellbc
Mar 18 '16 at 16:50

If you are not into buying more memory, 32015998976 can be nicely factored into 2^13x13x300631. Surely you can come up with a combination of block size and count that will fit in memory and is more efficient.
– Anthon
Mar 18 '16 at 16:53

@Anthon, that was the next step if this question did not produce any simple solutions.
– sherrellbc
Mar 18 '16 at 16:56

If you still have the original flash, wouldn't it be more easy to format the harddrive, mount it and then dd the flash to a file on the drive, possible one partition at a time?
– Anthon
Mar 18 '16 at 16:58

|
show 1 more comment

1 Answer
1

active

oldest

votes

Just copy the partitions that you need and the MBR if you need it too.

The MBR is stored in the the first 512 bytes of the disk.

dd if=/dev/sdX of=/path/to/mbr_file.img bs=512 count=1

Copy each partition

dd if=/dev/sdX1 of=/path/to/partition1.img bs=512

dd if=/dev/sdX2 of=/path/to/partition2.img bs=512

dd if=/dev/sdX3 of=/path/to/partition3.img bs=512

edited Mar 18 '16 at 20:34

answered Mar 18 '16 at 20:29

jc__

1,408517

add a comment |

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1 Answer
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Just copy the partitions that you need and the MBR if you need it too.

The MBR is stored in the the first 512 bytes of the disk.

dd if=/dev/sdX of=/path/to/mbr_file.img bs=512 count=1

Copy each partition

dd if=/dev/sdX1 of=/path/to/partition1.img bs=512

dd if=/dev/sdX2 of=/path/to/partition2.img bs=512

dd if=/dev/sdX3 of=/path/to/partition3.img bs=512

edited Mar 18 '16 at 20:34

answered Mar 18 '16 at 20:29

jc__

1,408517

add a comment |

Just copy the partitions that you need and the MBR if you need it too.

The MBR is stored in the the first 512 bytes of the disk.

dd if=/dev/sdX of=/path/to/mbr_file.img bs=512 count=1

Copy each partition

dd if=/dev/sdX1 of=/path/to/partition1.img bs=512

dd if=/dev/sdX2 of=/path/to/partition2.img bs=512

dd if=/dev/sdX3 of=/path/to/partition3.img bs=512

edited Mar 18 '16 at 20:34

answered Mar 18 '16 at 20:29

jc__

1,408517

add a comment |

Just copy the partitions that you need and the MBR if you need it too.

The MBR is stored in the the first 512 bytes of the disk.

dd if=/dev/sdX of=/path/to/mbr_file.img bs=512 count=1

Copy each partition

dd if=/dev/sdX1 of=/path/to/partition1.img bs=512

dd if=/dev/sdX2 of=/path/to/partition2.img bs=512

dd if=/dev/sdX3 of=/path/to/partition3.img bs=512

edited Mar 18 '16 at 20:34

answered Mar 18 '16 at 20:29

jc__

1,408517

Just copy the partitions that you need and the MBR if you need it too.

The MBR is stored in the the first 512 bytes of the disk.

dd if=/dev/sdX of=/path/to/mbr_file.img bs=512 count=1

Copy each partition

dd if=/dev/sdX1 of=/path/to/partition1.img bs=512

dd if=/dev/sdX2 of=/path/to/partition2.img bs=512

dd if=/dev/sdX3 of=/path/to/partition3.img bs=512

edited Mar 18 '16 at 20:34

answered Mar 18 '16 at 20:29

jc__

1,408517

edited Mar 18 '16 at 20:34

answered Mar 18 '16 at 20:29

jc__

1,408517

answered Mar 18 '16 at 20:29

jc__

1,408517

answered Mar 18 '16 at 20:29

jc__

1,408517

add a comment |

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