Data Duplicator, convert and copy a file, write disk headers, boot records, create a boot floppy. dd can make an exact clone of an (unmounted) disk, this will include all blank space so the output destination must be at least as large as the input.
Syntax
dd [Options]
Key
if=FILE
Input file : Read from FILE instead of standard input.
of=FILE
Output file : Write to FILE instead of standard output.
Unless 'conv=notrunc' is given, 'dd' truncates FILE to
zero bytes (or the size specified with 'seek=').
bs=BYTES
Block size, both read and write BYTES bytes at a time.
This overrides 'ibs' and 'obs'.
cbs=BYTES
Convert BYTES bytes at a time.
count=N
Copy N input blocks ('ibs'-byte blocks from the input file, instead of
everything) until the end of the file.
ibs=BYTES
Read BYTES bytes at a time.
obs=BYTES
Write BYTES bytes at a time.
oflag=FLAGS
Write as per the comma separated symbol list.
iflag=FLAGS
Read as per the comma separated symbol list.
seek=N (or oseek=N) skip N obs-sized output blocks.
skip=N (or iseek=N) skip N ibs-sized input blocks.
status=LEVEL
The LEVEL of information to print to stderr;
'none' suppress everything but error messages,
'noxfer' suppress the final transfer statistics,
'progress' show periodic transfer statistics
N and BYTES may be followed by the following multiplicative
suffixes: c=1, w=2, b=512, kB=1000, K=1024, MB=1000*1000,
M=1024*1024, xM=M, GB=1000*1000*1000, G=1024*1024*1024, and so on
for T, P, E, Z, Y. Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K,
MiB=M, and so on. If N ends in 'B', it counts bytes not blocks.
conv=CONVERSION[,CONVERSION]...
Convert the file as specified by the CONVERSION argument(s).
(No spaces around any comma)
Conversions:
'ascii' Convert EBCDIC to ASCII.
'ebcdic' Convert ASCII to EBCDIC.
'ibm' Convert ASCII to alternate EBCDIC.
'block' For each line in the input, output 'cbs' bytes, replacing the
input newline with a space and padding with spaces as necessary.
'unblock' Replace trailing spaces in each 'cbs'-sized input block with a newline.
'lcase' Change uppercase letters to lowercase.
'ucase' Change lowercase letters to uppercase.
'swab' Swap every pair of input bytes. GNU 'dd', unlike others, works when
an odd number of bytes are read--the last byte is copied
(since there is nothing to swap it with).
'noerror' Continue after read errors.
'notrunc' Do not truncate the output file.
'sync' Pad every input block to size of 'ibs' with trailing zero bytes.
The numeric-valued options (N and BYTES) can be followed by a multiplier: c=1, w=2, b=512, kB=1000, K=1024, MB=1000*1000,
M=1024*1024, xM=M, GB=1000*1000*1000, G=1024*1024*1024, and so on
for T, P, E, Z, Y. Binary prefixes can be used, too: KiB=K,
MiB=M, and so on. If N ends in 'B', it counts bytes not blocks.
The name dd can be an allusion to the DD statement found in IBM's Job Control Language (JCL), where the acronym stands for "Data Description". The lack of any confirmation prompt before truncating the output file has popularised the jocular name 'Data Destroyer'.
dd can copy a smaller drive to a larger one, but can’t copy a larger drive to a smaller one.
When cloning a disk drive, its a good idea to list the partitions before and afterwards using sudo fdisk –l
An empty/unformatted drive will appear as "Disk dev/sdn doesn't contain a vaild partition table".
If dd receives a USR1 signal, the current input and output block counts will be written to the standard error output in the same format as the standard completion message. e.g. kill -USR1 1234 where 1234 is the process id.
Clone the drive sda onto drive sdb:
$ dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb
Clone the drive hda onto an image file:
$ dd if=/dev/hda of=/image.img
Copy a CD or DVD disc to a .iso image file, first unmounting the disc:
sudo umount /dev/dvd-device
dd if=/dev/dvd-device of=dvd.iso bs=2048 conv=sync,notrunc
# dvd-device will typically be dvd for a dvd disc or cdrom for a cdrom disc.
Clone a hard drive to a zipped image file in 100Mb blocks:
$ dd if=/dev/hda bs=100M | gzip -c > /image.img
Create a 10 KB file filled with random data (10 x 1K blocks):
$ dd if=/dev/random of=random.bin bs=1024 count=10
Create an 8 GB empty file (also known as "sparse file") called spacer.img
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=spacer.img bs=1 count=0 seek=8G
Completely wipe the hard drive hdz by overwriting it with random data:
$ dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/hdz
Create a boot floppy:
$ dd if=boot.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=1440
“All of my servers have an 8GB empty spacer.img file that does absolutely nothing except take up space. That way in a moment of full-disk crisis I can simply delete it and buy myself some critical time” ~ Brian Schrader
CodeCoffee.com - dd examples.
cp - Copy one or more files to another location.
cpio - Copy files to and from archives.
ddrescue - Data recovery tool.
install - Copy files and set attributes.
mtools - Manipulate MS-DOS files.
sum - Print a checksum for a file.
GNOME Disks - Disk Management Utility for GNOME.
Equivalent Windows command: FSUTIL file setzerodata, or bbcopy (not secure)