[CentOS] A questiong about replacing my failing drive

Mon Jun 13 17:33:46 UTC 2005
Bryan J. Smith <b.j.smith at ieee.org>

On Mon, 2005-06-13 at 13:10 -0400, Lamar Owen wrote:
> Ghost, at least Symantec Ghost 8.0, does not do a generic sector by sector 
> copy on an ext2/3 filesystem, it copies file by file, even when cloning whole 
> disks (so that it doesn't copy blank space).

Don't confuse "generic sector-by-sector" with "filesystem block-by-
block."  _Huge_ difference.

Pretty much these programs (Ghost, Drive Copy/Image) use the _same_
approach.  They _always_ copy, _generically_, sector-by-sector -- very
fast, very direct.  They use "filesystem-specific modules" to identify
the used space as well as modify filesystem meta-data for
moving/resizing.

Traditional archive programs use intelligent filesystem block-by-block
access.  Dump programs do similar, but at a lower, filesystem-specific
level.  But both are typically going to be slower -- especially
traditional archiving.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith                                     b.j.smith at ieee.org 
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 
It is mathematically impossible for someone who makes more than you
to be anything but richer than you.  Any tax rate that penalizes them
will also penalize you similarly (to those below you, and then below
them).  Linear algebra, let alone differential calculus or even ele-
mentary concepts of limits, is mutually exclusive with US journalism.
So forget even attempting to explain how tax cuts work.  ;->