[wplug] Re: Q: how to make image copy of disc to CD/DVD?

[Brandon Kuczenski]

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005, Don Shepherd wrote:

> I want a disc image.  I want to be able to restore the entire bootable disc, 
> after I screw it up!
>
> I will try parted.
>
>

I was just recently looking into making use of a magnetic tape drive I've 
gotten for this purpose.  The following page:

http://berdmann.dyndns.org/zwicky/testdump.doc.html

documents the performance of various disk copying utilities in 
pathological cases (extremely long filenames, lots of filesystem holes, 
files changing, getting added, deleted, changed into directories 
mid-backup, etc).

The author didn't test parted, but she came to the conclusion that of the 
tools she did test, dump was best by a long shot, on account of it working 
on a lower level of abstraction (the disk) than the data itself.  She also 
says, "These results are in most cases stunningly appalling."

-Brandon