How to Clone an External Hard Drive with Linux
Cloning an external hard drive with Linux is a great way to make a complete backup of all your important data. By cloning the drive, you’ll have an exact copy of the original, so that if something happens to the original, you can always use the clone as a replacement. The process of cloning an external hard drive with Linux is much the same as cloning an internal hard drive, and in this article, we’ll show you how to do it.
What You Need to Clone an External Hard Drive with Linux
Before you begin, you’ll need a few things to get started. First, you’ll need a Linux computer, either a laptop or desktop, that’s running an up-to-date version of the Linux operating system. You’ll also need an external hard drive that you want to clone. Finally, you’ll need to have a means of connecting the external hard drive to the computer, such as a USB cable.
Cloning the External Hard Drive with Linux
Once you have the necessary items, you can begin the cloning process. The first step is to connect the external hard drive to your computer, then open a terminal window. Once the terminal window is open, type the following command:
sudo dd if=/dev/[source] of=/dev/[destination]
Where [source] is the source drive (the external hard drive you want to clone) and [destination] is the destination drive (the drive where you want to store the clone). Then, press Enter to begin the cloning process.
Verifying the Cloned Drive
Once the cloning process is complete, you’ll want to verify that the clone was successful. To do this, you can use the diff command to compare the source and destination drives. To do this, type the following command in the terminal window:
diff /dev/[source] /dev/[destination]
If the command returns no output, then the cloning process was successful and the destination drive contains an exact copy of the source drive.
Backing Up the Cloned Drive
Once you’re sure that the cloning process was successful, you should back up the clone. You can do this by using the tar command to create an archive of the clone. To do this, type the following command in the terminal window:
tar -cf [archive].tar /dev/[destination]
Where [archive] is the name of the archive you want to create and [destination] is the destination drive (the cloned drive). This will create an archive of the cloned drive, which can be used to restore the clone if something happens to the original drive.
Conclusion
Cloning an external hard drive with Linux is a great way to ensure that you always have an exact copy of your important data. The process is much the same as cloning an internal hard drive, and in this article, we’ve shown you how to do it. Once the clone is created, you should back it up, so that you can always restore it if something happens to the original drive.