I have a clone of an entire Mac OS HDD that I created using dd, as:

sudo dd if="/dev/sda" of="/media/mint/backup/mac-backup.img"

I verified the integrity of the image at creation time using diff. Now I have the machine back in my hands and I'd like to restore the backup. Can I simply do:

sudo dd if="/media/mint/backup/mac-backup.img" of="/dev/sda"

Or will this fail? I have an older backup made using a different process that I know I can restore from during the normal Mac setup process, so if this isn't going to work I can do that instead. However I don't know if that setup utility lives on the HDD or if it's in a more permanent storage location (the MB for example), so I am worried that I might accidentally overwrite it with dd. If that happens I don't know how to get a new copy.

Am I about to paint myself into a corner?

I have a clone of an entire Mac OS HDD that I created using dd, as:

sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/media/mint/backup/mac-backup.img

I verified the integrity of the image at creation time using diff. Now I have the machine back in my hands and I'd like to restore the backup. Can I simply do:

sudo dd if=/media/mint/backup/mac-backup.img of=/dev/sda

Or will this fail? I have an older backup made using a different process that I know I can restore from during the normal Mac setup process, so if this isn't going to work I can do that instead. However I don't know if that setup utility lives on the HDD or if it's in a more permanent storage location (the MB for example), so I am worried that I might accidentally overwrite it with dd. If that happens I don't know how to get a new copy.

Am I about to paint myself into a corner?