dd Vs. Ghost

[janthes]

Hi all.

I started fooling around with dd after using a copy of my friend's Norton Ghost. Is there any *real* difference with the images in terms of accuracy of the image?

Also, can someone show me how I can get a md5 checksum of the image as a text file after I image my HDD?

Thanks guys.

[Snowhog]

Re: dd Vs. Ghost

Generating an md5 checksum on a file is straight forward. Type:

md5 path/filename

If you are in the directory where the file is to be checked, omit the path.

[janthes]

Re: dd Vs. Ghost

Snowhog,

So from what I can understand, you mean:

dd (if & of) | md5 blah.img>md5_of_Image.txt?

EDIT: I'm not sure if ">" can be used in Linux, but I know text can be saved in this way in Windows.

[Snowhog]

Re: dd Vs. Ghost

If I understand your question, yes. You are first creating a file with dd and then piping the resulting file to the md5 command, with the result being redirected to a file. And yes, in Linux the redirection symbol '>' (to 'send/output' to) and '<' (to 'read/input' from) is correct.

[SheeEttin]

Re: dd Vs. Ghost

Something to note:
">" will overwrite a file. ">>" will append to the file.

Note, also, that "dd if=foo | md5sum" will send the disk info only to stdout. Use "dd if=foo of=bar; md5sum bar" to write to a file and calculate the MD5 checksum. (";" is just used to separate two commands; the dd and md5sum can be put on separate lines.)

On dd vs. Ghost: dd makes an identical bit-for-bit copy of the disk. Ghost probably just backs up the data on the disk (and a little more).
I have never used Ghost, though.

Oh, and as always, be very, very careful when using dd. It can easily screw up your system, badly. Measure twice, cut once.

[Snowhog]

Re: dd Vs. Ghost

Measure twice, cut once.

"Measure twice, get a second opinion, question the answer, rest, ..."

And yes to what SheeEttin says about using dd.

[lingenfr]

Re: dd Vs. Ghost

Ghost makes a complete copy. The difference is in the way they go about it and the format of the image file. One difference, dd is free, Ghost costs money