[wplug] dd

[Brandon Kuczenski]

I've heard a lot of talk about dd on this board and elsewhere.  So I want 
to ask a few questions I have in 'discussion' format.

It's a two-part question.

Background: I'm running a server which provides useful services to two, 
but potentially many more, people.  It has an IDE hard drive which is 
behaving unreliably.

I bought another 80 GB drive to replace it, but it's not exactly the same 
model (a Seagate "U-series" 80gb, 5400 rpm hard disc is being replaced by 
a Seagate "Barracuda" 80gb, 7200 rpm hard disc).  I would like to:

  - boot into single-user mode with both drives installed
  - not mount the drives in question
  - not format or label the new, replacement drive
  - run 'dd id=/dev/hdb od=/dev/hdc -possibly -other -arguments'
  - switch the drives and reboot into happiness.

  (1) Does this seem like a proper and successful use of 'dd'?  And (2) is 
the answer to that question OS-dependent (neglecting the device names and 
arguments), or only POSIX dependent?

Thanks,
Brandon