My original message was:
>I need some detailed information about the
>internals of the dump command. Here's
>my situation:
>
>I have a disk partition /dev/sd0h - /home,
>which for a lack of a better term, has been
>contaminated with several files. Luckily
>these files were written just once, and never
>deleted. So I should say that there are
>several blocks that are contaminated.
>
>Essentially I need to extract all the "good"
>data off this partition without getting the
>"bad" contaminated data as well.
>I don't want the blocks these files occupy.
>Even a single bit from these files is
>unacceptable! I am not interested in
>reformatting this partition, or encrypting
>the data in some way or another. I also
>must extract the good stuff onto a tape.
>
>It has been suggested I delete these files
>and use the dump command on this partition.
>Unfortunately, I don't know if the dump command
>will still grab these contaminated blocks.
>Does anyone know how the dump command really
>works? Does it do a raw backup bit by bit,
>or by block, or i-node, or etc? Would a tar
>work better?
>
It turns out that tar is the best solution.
I can tar the the entire partition into a file,
except for the contaminated area, and then
inspect the tar file for contamination. Once
I am certain it is not contaminated, I can write
the tar file to tape, and be done.
***************************************************************
* David Cain Phone: (315)426-3279 *
* Syracuse Research Corp. Fax: (315)426-3362 *
* Merrill Lane cain@syrres.com *
* Syracuse, NY 13210 http://athena.syrres.com/~cain *
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