this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2024
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    [–] waigl@lemmy.world 79 points 2 weeks ago (18 children)

    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.

    [–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 19 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

    Yeah lsblk, lsscsi, fdsik -l , go have a coffee, come back later and hit enter on dd

    [–] Cenzorrll@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

    Yeah lsblk, lsscsi, fdsik -l , go have a coffee, come back later and hit enter on dd

    Then realize you typed the command wrong and panic when you don't get an error.

    [–] naeap@sopuli.xyz 11 points 2 weeks ago

    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

    [–] grue@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

    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.

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    [–] muhyb@programming.dev 56 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    Always lsblk before dd. The order of /sdX might change from boot to boot. Only /nvme doesn't change.

    [–] extremeboredom@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
    [–] muhyb@programming.dev 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

    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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    [–] BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world 54 points 2 weeks ago

    I am become dd, the destroyer of disks

    [–] LostXOR@fedia.io 51 points 2 weeks ago

    "/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... "

    [–] debil@lemmy.world 46 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    Commands like dd are the best. Good ole greybeard-era spells with arcane syntax and the power to casually wipe out the whole universe (from their perspective ofc) if used haphazardly or not in respectful manner.

    [–] ftbd@feddit.org 21 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    What do you mean? Explicitly having to set if= and of= is way harder to screw up than mixing up the order of arguments for e.g. cp.

    [–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 8 points 1 week ago

    I could swear the argument order to "ln" swaps every now and then!

    [–] debil@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    Unless you forget what if and of mean. With cp it's simply "cp what where". Never had problems remembering that.

    [–] imsufferableninja@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

    is it really hard to remember infile and outfile?

    [–] debil@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

    No, but you're just typing if and of, not infile and outfile, and the letters are right next to each other on a qwerty kbd. One can haphazardly misuse a lot of commands, it's just that some commands may lead to nastier outcomes than others.

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    [–] tabularasa@lemmy.ca 41 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    --status=progress. So happy when they added this.

    [–] lengau@midwest.social 6 points 1 week ago

    If only I could remember to set status=progress...

    I always end up using killall -USR1 from another terminal

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    [–] SexualPolytope@lemmy.sdf.org 27 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

    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.

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    [–] dadarobot@lemmy.sdf.org 24 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

    i always just

    cat /dev/??? > /dev/null
    

    to make sure the usb blinks

    [–] rtxn@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)
    [–] InnerScientist@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

    More like *screams into the void*

    [–] AnnaFrankfurter@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

    Me laughing with /dev/nvme0n1p1

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    [–] hellfire103@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago

    That's a good way of doing it

    [–] lnxtx@feddit.nl 22 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    You all still have a LED inside USB flashdrive?

    [–] hellfire103@lemmy.ca 12 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

    Yep! I just installed Void about ten minutes ago off a 2GB stick from the mid-2000s. Somehow, those little sticks just keep going!

    [–] ma1w4re@lemm.ee 6 points 2 weeks ago

    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 😳😳

    [–] f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

    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

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    [–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 weeks ago

    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.

    [–] Voyajer@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

    Remember kids, always lsblk before you dd

    [–] 1985MustangCobra@lemmy.ca 13 points 2 weeks ago

    heh i do it hardcore, my USB has no light ;)

    [–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
    [–] autonomous@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago

    don't cross the streams

    [–] philluminati@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

    ls /dev > /tmp/before

    ls /dev > /tmp/after

    diff /tmp/before /tmp/after

    <sweating>
    [–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

    You could just open gnome disks

    [–] 1985MustangCobra@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 weeks ago

    ok grandma, go back to facebook /s

    [–] heisenbug4242@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

    /dev/disk/by-id/xxx works for me. Never made a mistake.

    [–] SaltyIceteaMaker@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    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🤷

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    [–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 weeks ago

    Sounds like someone's not up to date with their backups.

    [–] MITM0@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

    We seriously need a series of DD-Command 4 Dummies guides Also you guys have USB drives with lights ????

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