What you describe for the dd command is about what I saw. I don't recall the exact number of records... the dd command took about 20 minutes or so.

Here is the info: (40 gig not attached at the moment, kind of harried right now, will have to do it later)

root@PartedMagic:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 20.4 GB, 20490559488 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 39703 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x384372b4

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 39702 20009776+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000a1dc7

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 1 8001 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 2 523 4192965 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb3 524 5622 40957717+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 5623 60801 443225317+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 5623 60801 443225286 b W95 FAT32
root@PartedMagic:~#