Re: Block sizes for dd(1) to USB memory sticks (flash drives) for installers for FreeBSD

From: Graham Perrin <grahamperrin_at_freebsd.org>
Date: Sat, 01 Oct 2022 23:45:37 UTC
On 30/09/2022 17:33, Craig Leres wrote:
> On 9/30/22 00:26, Graham Perrin wrote:
>> <https://www.freebsd.org/releases/13.1R/announce/#_availability> and 
>> elsewhere:
>>
>> bs=1m
>>
>> Why so small?
>>
>> I find things much faster with a larger block size. Is this my 
>> imagination?
>
> I rarely use dd after learning about recoverdisk(1). But I see why dd 
> would be referenced in installation instructions (e.g. switching from 
> a linux distro).
>
>         Craig


Evidently, the difference in speed was my imagination.

I found less than one second difference between these two commands:

time recoverdisk -v FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso /dev/da3

time gdd if=FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso of=/dev/da3 
status=progress conv=sync bs=10M

recoverdisk(1) is a great hint. Thanks.