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.
Yeah lsblk, lsscsi, fdsik -l , go have a coffee, come back later and hit enter on dd
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 themObviously 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
Always
lsblkbeforedd. The order of /sdX might change from boot to boot. Only /nvme doesn’t change.Why is this?
It’s a design thing. BIOS can know NVMe disks’ location because they’re directly mounted to PCIe. SATA isn’t like this. Similar logic with the RAM slots.
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“/dev/sdb? It’s sdb? With a B? Yep that’s the flash drive. Just type it in…
of=/dev/sdwhat was the letter again? B? Alright,/dev/sdb. Double check withlsblk, yep that’s the small disk. Are my backups working properly? Alright here goes nothing… <enter>”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!
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 😳😳
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
I buy them specifically with LED. It s helpful for data transfer, but also helpful for doing a flash of new OS to old nas hardware… You have to hold reset button in on nas until you see it start to read USB (by LED) then you know you can release the reset button.
i always just
cat /dev/??? > /dev/nullto make sure the usb blinks
Me laughing with /dev/nvme0n1p1
well i mean, the original meme was referring to a usb device with an led…
That’s a good way of doing it
This is the only reason why I still use GUI for making Linux USBs. Can’t trust my ADHD ass to write the correct drive name. Also, none of my USB drives have a light.
Popsicle is pretty nice, it doesn’t let you choose the internal drives afaik.
Luckily, this problem will disappear soon as we’re moving to systems with only nvme drives. Kinda hard to mistake /dev/nvmexny for /dev/sdx.
Are we though? My RPI uses a SD card and is labels it as
sdand the same is true for virtual machines.The RPIs are moving to nvme too, though indeed a bit slower than desktop machines. My virtual machines use /dev/vdx, and I don’t typically connect USB drives to my virtual machines with the intent to flash them :)
Remember kids, always lsblk before you dd
heh i do it hardcore, my USB has no light ;)
ls /dev > /tmp/before
<insert usb>
ls /dev > /tmp/after
<repeat two more times>
diff /tmp/before /tmp/after
<sweating>You could just open gnome disks
ok grandma, go back to facebook /s
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.
Sounds like someone’s not up to date with their backups.
We seriously need a series of DD-Command 4 Dummies guides<br> Also you guys have USB drives with lights ???
Reminds me of the DOS days of my youth.
fdisk does not stand for friendly disk.
