Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> Thanks for SL5!
> 
> I am currently upgrading two systems from SL44 to SL5 (the rest
> are getting fresh installs).
...
> I do each upgrade on a "dd" copy of the original hard drive onto
> a spare;  backing out of a failed upgrade is easier that way.

The "wisdom" I have gathered is not to use dd for such
disk duplication, but to use fdisk for partitioning, and
"rsync -ax /orginal/ /target/" for file copy
(be careful with the trailing /'s).

The first reason is that dd copies bad blocks, and
the second reason is that rsync over a blanck partition defrags the 
files.  A second rsync allows to check fast the first copy.  The third 
argument is that often disks are not strictly equal, and
then dd is anyway not recommended.

Some use tar instead of rsync.


Dan