Yeah, and backing up the MBR, creating files of a given size like keys, yadda yadda. Anyone getting nitty gritty with storage media, legacy hardware etc, should know their dd.

I first came to love it learning how to fix my bootloader and undo all sorts of horrible things I'd done to my system when I was a teenager exploring Linux well over a decade ago. I also worked in repair for a while and there it was indispensable for data recovery purposes along with its cousin ddrescue.

Now I just use it for my constant tinkering needs.

recovered a few usb drives this way they wouldn't be recovered any other way (or even recognized beyond a /dev/* entry)

wipefs -af