How to copy exact hard drive partition bit by bit

I just recently made the fatal mistake of typing "mkfs.vfat /dev/hda1" and deleting the wrong FAT32 partition on my computer. Right now, I am attempting to recover it but do not know how. The first thing I want to do is transfer the corrupted partition to another computer. Based on suggestions, I am using the program called "dd." However, I do not know how to do this over a network. Basically, I want to copy /dev/hda1 on my one computer to /dev/hdb8 on another computer called COMP, let's say. I am trying


dd if=/dev/hda1 of=COMP:/dev/hdb8

but that is not working. Anyone know what I am doing wrong?

Easiest thing would be if you could create the image on the local machine and then transfer it over the network. For example:

Code:

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dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/mnt/bkup/hda1.img

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This command would create an image of the first partition on the first physical drive, and save it to a mount point /mnt/bkup (which you would need to create first). There will need to be sufficient room there for the image. Also, /dev/hda1 should be mounted read-only before you attempt to do this.

Then you can copy hda1.img to another machine via scp or whatever.

If you don't mind a bit of insecurity you could enable rsh and do

Code:

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dd if=/dev/hda1 | rsh otherhost dd of=/dev/hdb8

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You could put a bit of compression in the pipeline to reduce network traffic.