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I want to use the dd command from a Knoppix 5.1.1 CD to clone one SATA HDD to another, larger SATA HDD. The drives are detected as sda and sdb. ...
  1. 10-23-2009 #1
    HelpPleas
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    Identifying drives



    I want to use the dd command from a Knoppix 5.1.1 CD to clone one SATA HDD to another, larger SATA HDD.
    The drives are detected as sda and sdb.
    How can I be sure which is which? I don't want to clone in the wrong direction and lose all data.
    The HDD I want to clone is damaged and no partitions can be found. The target HDD contains no partitions.
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  2. 10-23-2009 #2
    oz
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    Welcome to the forums!

    The fdisk command should list the drives and their partitions when run from a terminal:

    Code:
    fdisk -l
    That's a lowercase letter L, and not a number one in the command.
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  3. 10-23-2009 #3
    MikeTbob
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    If you are cloning a drive, I'd think the target drive would be empty and easy to identify or am I missing something here?
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  4. 10-23-2009 #4
    HelpPleas
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    Thank you for your prompt replies.

    The command fdisk -l is producing no output.

    The target drive is empty, and when I attempt to open it I get this message:
    Could not mount device. The reported error was: I could not determine the filesystem type, and none was specified

    The problem is that I get the same message when I try to open the source drive. I know it contains data, but it has been corrupted.

    I want to use TestDisk to recreate partitions, but it specifically says that the disk should be cloned first.
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  5. 10-23-2009 #5
    HelpPleas
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    OK, I figured it out.

    I have to put: sudo fdisk -l

    Then I get to see details of all drives, including the size in GBs. I still think I'd be stuck if I were cloning to a drive which was exactly the same size as my source drive.

    Is there a definite rule, eg: the drive attached to SATA 1 is always sda, etc?
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