Thanks for the suggestion. I have tried that with the same response.

If I used dd to backup /dev/hda then I thought I'd be able to restore the same.

I might try restoring /dev/hda1 2 etc and then sda 1 2 etc,

What do you think?

EDIT: I get the same thing each time."No space left on device".
The command appears to work suggesting the syntax is ok.
Am i missing a step preparing the disk?