There are several ways to copy and clone a USB stick, including its partitions, on a Linux system. Two common methods are using the dd
command or the ddrescue
command.
- Using
dd
: Thedd
command can be used to create an exact copy of a USB stick, including its partitions, on another USB stick or a file.
dd if=/dev/sdx of=/dev/sdy
Where /dev/sdx
is the source USB stick and /dev/sdy
is the destination USB stick or file. It’s important to note that the dd
command is a powerful tool that can be dangerous if used incorrectly, so be sure to double-check the source and destination before running the command.
- Using
ddrescue
:ddrescue
is a tool similar todd
that is designed to recover data from damaged media.
ddrescue /dev/sdx /dev/sdy
Where /dev/sdx
is the source USB stick and /dev/sdy
is the destination USB stick.
You can also use other tools like dcfldd
or gddrescue
or use GUI based tools like gnome-disks
or gparted
to achieve the same task.
In all cases, it is important to make sure that the destination USB stick is the same size or larger than the source USB stick. Also, it is always recommended to backup important data before making any change to the USB stick, as the process may corrupt or delete data.