<p>Is there a way to have Linux read ahead when cloning a disk?  I use the program named "dd" to clone disks.  The last time I did this it seemed as though the OS was reading then writing but never at the same time.  Ideally, the destination disk would be constantly writing without waiting that's of course if the source disk can keep up.</p>

<p>UPDATE: I normally choose a large block size when cloning (ex. 16M or 32MB).</p>

Maybe you can use two processes
```
```
dd if=indevfile | dd of=outdevfile
```
```
I'll assume you can set the other dd options as it suits you.
This has some overhead but should allow asynchrony between reading
one disk and writing the other.