How to clone or copy your harddisk over the network

Method 1 (tested!) 
 On the bron/zender/source: 
 #dd if=/dev/sda | gzip -c | netcat -l -q 0 -p 2222  
 On the ontvanger/doel/target: 
 #netcat   2222 | gzip -cd | dd of=/dev/sda 
 This way we get a throughput of 14,1 MB/s, 160 GB in 11543 seconds
(3,2 hour) 
 Methode 2 (niet getest!) 
 How do I use netcat to copy hard disk image? 
 Our sample setup 
 HostA // 192.168.1.1 
 

sda 
 

NETWORK 
 

sdb 
 HostB // 192.168.1.2 
 Your task is copy HostA /dev/sda to HostB's /dev/sdb using netcat
command. First login as root user Command to type on hostB (receiving
end ~ write image mode) 
 You need to open port on hostB using netcat, enter : 
 # netcat -p 2222 -l |bzip2 -d | dd of=/dev/sdb 
 Where, 
 

* -p 2222 : Specifies the source port nc should use, subject to privilege restrictions and availability.

Make sure port 2222 is not used by another process. 
 

* -l : Used to specify that nc should listen for an incoming connection rather than initiate a connection to a remote host. 
 

* bzip2 -d : Compresses image using the Burrows-Wheeler block sorting text compression algorithm, and Huffman coding. This will speed up network transfer ( -d : force decompression mode) 
 

* dd of=/dev/sda : /dev/sda is your hard disk. You can also specify partition such as /dev/sda1 
 Command to type on hostA (send data over a network ~ read image
mode) 
 Now all you have to do is start copying image. Again login as root
and enter: 
 # bzip2 -c /dev/sda | netcat hostA 2222 
 OR use IP address: 
 # bzip2 -c /dev/sda | netcat 192.168.1.1 2222 
 This process takes its own time. A note about latest netcat version
1.84-10 and above 
 If you are using latest nc / netcat version above syntax will
generate an error. It is an error to use -l option in conjunction with
the -p, -s, or -z options. Additionally, any timeouts specified with the
-w option are ignored. So use nc command as follows. 
 On hostA, enter: 
 # nc -l 2222 > /dev/sdb 
 On hostB, enter: 
 # nc hostA 2222< /dev/sda 
 OR 
 # nc 192.168.1.1 2222< /dev/sda 
 Using a second machine (hostB), connect to the listening nc process
at 2222 (hostA), feeding it the file (/dev/sda)which is to be
transferred. You can use bzip2 as follows. On hostA, enter: 
 # nc -l 2222 | bzip2 -d > /dev/sdb 
 On hostB, enter: 
 # bzip2 -c /dev/sda | nc 192.168.1.1 2222