Would this work or would I have problems:
Using dd command to backup an entire SSD containing dual boot Windows/Ubuntu partitions into an .iso file, with the intent to then dd that iso back onto the same size SSD in the case of a drive failure?
Would this work or would I have problems:
Using dd command to backup an entire SSD containing dual boot Windows/Ubuntu partitions into an .iso file, with the intent to then dd that iso back onto the same size SSD in the case of a drive failure?
Yes.
Also yes.
I used to do this backing up my “servers”. By that I mean some Raspberry Pis and random old PCs running Debian. I even did so successfully when needing to restore the images. But it was fragile and also failed at times, sometimes to great inconvenience when it was a machine serving something important.
I’ve since moved to a different backup strategy for servers, but if I were to do this with a bare-metal machine I want to preserve, I’d use something like Clonezilla. The maintainers of that project know a whole heck of a lot more than I do of the ins and outs of disk management, backup, and restoration than I do with my simple
ddcommands. If it is something you’re just wanting to do for fun and experience,ddcan work. If you’re concerned with the security of your data/image, I’d use Clonezilla.Honestly, that just seems like you’re treating dd as some kind of arcanum. dd works just fine and I’ve been doing 1:1, full system backups for decades with it, no issues. Honorary mention for ddrescue / dd_rescue for recovery options, i. e. re-trying bad sector reads etc.
In fact, when Clonezilla doesn’t know your filesystem, it will simply employ dd to copy the data sector by sector.
I’d argue that Clonezilla (due to its use of partclone) is actually a less complete form of backup, since it will only copy used blocks, you don’t really end up with a clone of your devices, just a copy of what partclone believes to be your data. Don’t get me wrong, that is fine in most use cases, but there are some cases where this doesn’t cut it, e. g. wanting to backup / restore a storage device from a PLC where the vendor had the glorious idea to store licensing data in unused sectors, or when you want to create a forensic disk image, might want it look into d3dd then, although it absolutely works using regular old dd as well, d3dd just adds some amenities.
All I want to say is: dd is an absolutely reliable tool and can be a one stop solution for device backups. Also, I have absolutely no quarrels with Clonezilla, if it fits what you’re trying to do and it works, great.