Using rsync to syncronize two unmounted disk partitions

[John Van Essen]

On Fri, 17 Mar 2006, Antonio Arauzo Azofra <arauzo at decsai.ugr.es> wrote:
> 
> Thanks to your message I did a new test, and it seems
> rsyncs allows this:
> 
>     rsync <file local or remote> /dev/hda9
> 
> I have hanged the device testing to overflow it, but it seems it works.
> (I haven't tested much yet)

Just because rsync is such a great tool doesn't mean it's appropriate
for every copying task.

Something like this is better suited:

  dd bs=16384 if=/dev/hda8 of=/dev/hda9

To copy between machines:

  dd bs=16384 if=/dev/hda8 | ssh user at host dd bs=16384 of=/dev/hda9

Disclaimer: I haven't actually tried the ssh trick, above.

Also - a different block size (bs=) may be more efficient depending
on the device characteristics.

    John