Linux dd vs cp | Hugonweb Annotated Link Bibliography

Tutorials and instructions usually recommend dd over cp for copying disc images to devices (like USB sticks). It seems that this is mostly superstition.

The main benefit is that dd lets you specify the block size used for copying, but cp automatically selects the block size at least as well as I would.

The other benefit of dd is a progress display. Piping the output of the pv command to the destination disc may be a better option.