On Sat, 01 Jun 2013 16:00:06 +0000, Rock wrote: > OK. This is where we don't want to make a mistake! > Q: Does the block size matter? I kicked it off, as follows, and will wait to report: $ cd /mnt $ script recovery.log ==> Script started, file is recovery.log Backing up the MBR (as per the Wikipedia on "dd"): $ sudo dd if=/dev/sdc1 of=MBR.img bs=512 count=1 ==> 1+0 records in ==> 1+0 records out ==> 512 bytes (512 B) copied, 0.00111047 s, 461 kB/s Backing up the MBR+stuff (as per the Wikipedia on "dd"): $ sudo dd if=/dev/sdc1 of=MBR_boot.img bs=446 count=1 ==> 1+0 records in ==> 1+0 records out ==> 446 bytes (446 B) copied, 0.00122302 s, 365 kB/s Now comes the biggie, backing up the entire 150MB disk: Q: Maybe I should have used the "conv=noerror" option as suggested in the dd wikipedia entry? $ sudo dd if=/dev/sdc1 of=/mnt/image.dd bs=1M I'll report back the results; but hints are good because I will write up a tutorial, based on my experience, and post it for others to follow specifically for Centos.