Complete backup of HD - dd?
I have a Mandrake 7.1 server running on an internal network that I would like to backup. I have only been using Linux a short time, so please bare with me.
I have two identical IDE hard drives. I would like to make an exact copy from the first one to the second, and unplug the second drive. Then if anything happens to the machine just swap drives and be up and running immediatly. Sound good so far?
Would the command "dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hdb1 bs=1024" accomplish this? Will this copy absolutely everything including partitions, MBR? Does the second drive have to be formatted or made bootable beforehand?
Thanks
