dd and ddrescue to backup partitions

dd if=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 of=/dev/vg1000/LogVol00
dd if=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 | bzip2 -1 > /data/LogVol00.dd.bz
dd if=/dev/VolGroup00/amfhome | bzip2 -1 > /data/amfhome.dd.bz
dd if=/dev/sdc1 | bzip2 -1 > /data/sdc1_grub.dd.bz
#dd if=/dev/VolGroup00/vm_amfh | bzip2 -1 > /data/vm_amfh.dd.bz
dd if=/dev/VolGroup00/vm_amfh of=/data/vm_amfh.dd

dd if=/dev/VolGroup00/jessica | bzip2 -1 > /data/jessica.dd.bz #20Gb
dd if=/dev/VolGroup00/fred | bzip2 -1 > /data/fred.dd.bz #10Gb
dd if=/dev/VolGroup00/backups | bzip2 -1 > /data/backups.dd.bz #50Gb
or: dd if=/dev/VolGroup00/backups of=/data/backups.dd
dd if=/dev/VolGroup00/cfaw | bzip2 -1 > /data/cfaw.dd.bz #70Gb
or: dd if=/dev/VolGroup00/cfaw of=/data/cfaw.dd
dd if=/dev/VolGroup00/andrew_bak | bzip2 -1 > /data/andrew_bak.dd.bz #100Gb

pgrep -l '^dd$' # monitor dd progress by doing: kill -USR1 nnnnn from another session

#dd if=/dev/sdc of=/dev/sdb bs=100M conv=notrunc,noerror #should have used ddrescue

vgchange -a y /dev/VolGroup00 #to activate and de-activate --no trailing slash

#### ddrescue notes:
ddrescue -n /dev/sdc /dev/sdb logfile
ddrescue -dr3 /dev/sdc /dev/sdb logfile
fdisk /dev/hdb
e2fsck -v -f /dev/hdb1
e2fsck -v -f /dev/hdb2

http://www.promotionalpromos.com/mirrors/gnu/gnu/ddrescue/ddrescue-1.11....

#did this:
ddrescue-1.11/ddrescue -n /dev/sdb /dev/sdc logfile
ddrescue-1.11/ddrescue -dr3 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc logfile

#save what we have after ddrescue:
dd if=/dev/sdb1 of=/data/sdc1_grub_ddr.dd #save it

bunzip2 -dc /data/sdc1_grub.dd.bz | dd of=/dev/sdb1 #put back last save
fdisk /dev/sdb
e2fsck -v -f /dev/sdb1

vgchange -a y /dev/VolGroup00 #to activate
bunzip2 -dc /data/LogVol00.dd.bz | dd of=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
e2fsck -v -f /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
bunzip2 -dc /data/amfhome.dd.bz | dd of=/dev/VolGroup00/amfhome
e2fsck -v -f /dev/VolGroup00/amfhome
dd if=/data/vm_amfh.dd of=/dev/VolGroup00/vm_amfh
e2fsck -v -f /dev/VolGroup00/vm_amfh

Smart:
smartctl -d ata -H /dev/sda
smartctl --attributes --log=selftest /dev/sda