Yeah once I forgot I had an external drive on one of the USB ports on my PC and created an Ubuntu drive with dd and just sent it do /dev/sdb ..lost all movies I had on it. After that I always check with df -h or fdisk -l
this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2024
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IMHO, it was a mistake to make USB block storage use the same line of names also used for local hard disks. Sure, the block device drivers for USB mass storage internally hook into the SCSI subsystem to provide block level access, and that's why the drives are called sd[something], but why should I as an end user have to care about that? A USB drive is very much not the same thing for me as a SCSI harddisk. A NVMe drive on the other hand, kinda sorta is, at least from a practical purpose point of view, yet NVMe drives get a completely different naming scheme.
That aside, suggest you use lsblk before dd.
While we're at it, can we also rename the hard drive block devices back to hd instead of sd again? SATA might use the SCSI subsystem, but SATA ain't SCSI.
At least sata is well on its way towards dying, so the problem will solve itself in some more years.
My machines all have nvme exclusively now, only some servers are left using sata. And I would say the type of user at risk of fucking up a dd command (which 95% of the time should be a cp command) doesn't deal with servers. Those are also not machines you plug thumb drives into commonly.
In 5-10 years we will think of sda as the usb drive, and it'll be a fun-fact that sda used to be the boot drive.
does that mean that you dont use hard drives at all? how many storage have you got?
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S-ATA still is the only way to have more than two drives in the system.
My motherboard has 3 nvme bays.
If I saw the need, there are cheap pcie to nvme cards, since (non-sata) nvme is just directing pcie lanes to the ssd anyway.
But like I said below, I don't even have the need to get a single ssd at the currently maximum price-effective size of 4TB, no less two or three.
In my observation putting mass storage into your pc is dying in favor of either not needing that much storage, or putting it in a nas or other internet-accessible device.
Even my non-IT friends do things like put their hdd in a usb enclosure and attach it to their (internet accessible) router.
Yeah lsblk, lsscsi, fdsik -l , go have a coffee, come back later and hit enter on dd
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I still made the mistake, when I sleep deprived switched if and of somehow
My then girlfriend wasn't exactly happy, that all here photos and music, which we just moved off old CDs, that couldn't be read correctly anymore, and I spent quite some time to finally move them
Obviously the old CDs and the backup image were thrown out/deleted just a few days earlier, because I proudly had saved the bulk of it - and being poor students having loads of storage for multiple backups wasn't in reach.
Backing them up again to fresh CDs was on the plan, but I quickly needed a live USB stick to restore my work laptop...
Since then I'm always anxious, when working with dd. Still years later I triple check and already think through my backup restoration plan
Which is a good thing in itself, but my heart rate spikes can't be healthy
"/dev/sdb? It's sdb? With a B? Yep that's the flash drive. Just type it in... of=/dev/sd what was the letter again? B? Alright, /dev/sdb. Double check with lsblk, yep that's the small disk. Are my backups working properly? Alright here goes nothing... "
You all still have a LED inside USB flashdrive?
Yep! I just installed Void about ten minutes ago off a 2GB stick from the mid-2000s. Somehow, those little sticks just keep going!
Keep them around. I was playing with and testing some ~15 years old mobos for work, and they would not boot from any USB3.0 stick I tried. Same images on an 8GB USB2.0 stick booted with no problem.
Name and shame: Biostar motherboard
Don't worry, you can still buy USB 2.0 sticks nowadays.
They're priced almost the same as USB 3.whatever sticks. Literally. Add an euro or 2 and double the capacity and go to usb 3.0
for an usb, it might work. For such an old hard drive, it won't. Linux will refuse to boot
I don't think so. Block device is a block device.
Maybe you have better knowledge, please elaborate.
i know it from experience. When i wanted to install a modern Linux on a 2009 hdd, it installed, but simply refused to boot, even though hdsentinel said the hdd is 100℅ healthy
?
Same! I have a 4gb white SanDisk stick, from like 12-14 years ago and is still working 💀💀 it even died on me once, and started working again after a few days 😳😳
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Remember kids, always lsblk before you dd
worst case for me would be ereasing my ventoy drive.
cause i for sure wont be partitioning any of my nvme drives. so the only mistake i can make is like type sda instead of sdb which would just be another usb drive🤷
I want a immutible Linux that restricts access to critical components. I wouldn't mind running my desktop in a container.
NixOS store (app folder) is read only. You literally can't mess with it. It doesn't really need a container, most things are locked down already. Of course you could mess up your home folder, but that's on you then