mfstool clone won't boot, need to copy bootblock with dd?

[goony]

I wanted to do some tinkering, so I used mfstool to make an identical copy
of my HDVR2 (3.1.1b) system thusly:

mfstool backup -Tao - /dev/hda | mfstool restore -i - /dev/hdb

After the copy operation the clone was installed and it never got past
the 'welcome' screen.

Do I need to use 'dd' to specifically copy the bootblock too (i.e. just the bootblock? The target drive (removed from duty as a raid 1 disk in a Linux system) is an identical make/model/size drive to the running HDVR2 system drive.

Also... should/could I just use 'dd' to copy the entire drive instead of mfstool?

Thanks!