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Groups > comp.os.linux.misc > #77673

Taming The Data Destroyer

From Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid>
Newsgroups comp.os.linux.misc
Subject Taming The Data Destroyer
Date 2025-11-17 02:31 +0000
Organization A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID <10fe1ec$ipc8$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)

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I use the “dd” command fairly frequently, to put new versions of
SystemRescue on the USB stick I dedicate to that purpose, for example.
The command has been nicknamed the “data destroyer”, because while
doing sector-level copies as root, it can be all too easy to write to
the wrong device, and destroy an important filesystem.

The “lsblk” command can be handy for confirming which block device you
should be writing to, before pressing Enter on that fateful command.
There’s lots of information it can display, to help you identify the
right device. For example, a command like

    lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,SERIAL,WWN,VENDOR,MODEL

shows a little tree display of devices and partitions in the first
column, followed by a lot of info you can use to identify what is
currently plugged in. I tried a couple of USB sticks, and they showed
amazingly long strings for their serial numbers. My SystemRescue stick
shows the vendor as “TOSHIBA” and the model as “TransMemory”.

Interestingly, both Western Digital and Seagate drives show the vendor
as “ATA”, though the model name begins with “WDC” for the one and “ST”
for the other. The SSD boot drives in both my main workstation and
laptop display blank for the vendor, but again the model field shows
some vendor-specific information.

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Thread

Taming The Data Destroyer Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-11-17 02:31 +0000
  Re: Taming The Data Destroyer rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-11-17 04:18 +0000
    Re: Taming The Data Destroyer Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> - 2025-11-17 10:42 +0100
      Re: Taming The Data Destroyer Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-11-18 01:10 +0000
        Re: Taming The Data Destroyer c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-11-17 21:08 -0500
    Re: Taming The Data Destroyer "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-11-17 12:51 +0100
  Re: Taming The Data Destroyer jayjwa <jayjwa@atr2.ath.cx.invalid> - 2025-11-17 12:55 -0500
    Re: Taming The Data Destroyer not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2025-11-18 07:06 +1000
      Re: Taming The Data Destroyer c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-11-17 19:00 -0500
        Re: Taming The Data Destroyer Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> - 2025-11-18 16:31 +1000
          Re: Taming The Data Destroyer "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-11-18 07:46 +0100
            Re: Taming The Data Destroyer c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-11-18 02:12 -0500
              Re: Taming The Data Destroyer rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-11-18 23:02 +0000
          Re: Taming The Data Destroyer c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-11-18 02:01 -0500
            Re: Taming The Data Destroyer Ralf Fassel <ralfixx@gmx.de> - 2025-11-18 16:24 +0100
              Re: Taming The Data Destroyer The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-11-18 15:30 +0000
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-11-18 22:31 +0000
              Re: Taming The Data Destroyer "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-11-18 17:49 +0100
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-11-19 18:32 -0500
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-11-20 12:57 +0100
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-11-20 22:53 +0000
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-11-20 22:04 -0500
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-11-20 22:17 -0500
          Re: Taming The Data Destroyer Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-11-18 07:18 +0000
            Re: Taming The Data Destroyer c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-11-18 02:34 -0500
              Re: Taming The Data Destroyer "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-11-18 08:46 +0100
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-11-18 08:09 +0000
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-11-18 17:55 +0100
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-11-18 19:35 +0000
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2025-11-19 06:48 +1000
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-11-18 21:40 +0000
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-11-18 22:27 +0000
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-11-18 22:26 +0000
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-11-19 18:23 -0500
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-11-19 02:41 +0100
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-11-18 03:17 -0500
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-11-18 12:12 +0000
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-11-18 17:53 +0100
                Re: Taming The Data Destroyer Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-11-18 19:32 +0000
            Re: Taming The Data Destroyer Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> - 2025-11-18 14:46 +0200
      Re: Taming The Data Destroyer candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> - 2025-11-20 18:40 +0000
    Re: Taming The Data Destroyer Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-11-18 00:58 +0000
      Re: Taming The Data Destroyer c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-11-17 21:04 -0500
        Re: Taming The Data Destroyer rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-11-18 06:32 +0000
          Re: Taming The Data Destroyer c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-11-18 02:07 -0500

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