Learn The DD Command

[AwesomeMachine]

This is by far the most useful linux command there is, and almost no one knows about it. It comes with every linux distro, old or new, and all UNIX. It has been around since the 1970's. Here is a link to the best dd tutorial.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=362506

[saikee]

Welcome AwesomeMachine,

You should find the standard here is higher than LQ and many members are pretty good in playing tunes with "dd", but not making it sing and dance as much as you do.

It is one of the wonders in Linux to me. Everybody knows Linux doesn't write on a NTFS partition but with "dd" we can clone a Xp system.

[CaptainPinko]

Everybody knows Linux doesn't write on a NTFS partition but with "dd" we can clone a XP system.

I bring you miracle of 2.6.15 (http://wiki.kernelnewbies.org/LinuxChanges) :

NTFS write support: NTFS finally implements write support so "vim /ntfs/foo.txt" works. You can write(2) to a file even beyond the end of the existing file. Resident non-resident files and are supported. Sparse files can also be written and holes will be filed appropriately. truncate(2), ftruncate(2) and open(2) with O_TRUNC flag also works.


however:

There're some limitations with heavily fragmented files which you won't be allowed to change. Also, notice that creation/deletion of files and directories is still not supported and mmap(2) based writes is still not complete


But I think this means we are getting awfully close.

Cheers.

[saikee]

Captain Pinko,

Thanks for the tip.

I seldom have a need to write on a NTFS because I keep my personal data in a Fat32 partition accessible by all systems. Had tried out a few alternatives like Captive write etc but not always yield results.

My prediction is a lot of damage can be done to XP and Win2k if there is no hurdle to write on NTFS partitions by the newcomers.

We may be able to make a living out of just advising users how to salvage the Winodws systems. :D

[CyberCat]

This is by far the most useful linux command there is, and almost no one knows about it. It comes with every linux distro, old or new, and all UNIX. It has been around since the 1970's. Here is a link to the best dd tutorial.Thanks so much! I've been looking all over to find out how to make a bootable usb of an image file. I figured it was with dd but some places I found said to use cat > (I think that was for extracting actually)

Anyway thanks!