[PLUG] backup/restore; more questions

[Word Wizard]

I used 'dd' to backup the MBR of my primary hard disk thus:

dd if=/dev/sda of=/media/disk/sda.boot.mbr bs=512 count=1

Upon restore I should have received:

/dev/sda1   *           1         996     8000338+  82  Linux swap /
Solaris
/dev/sda2             997       14593   109217902+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5             997        1002       48163+  83  Linux  (/boot)
/dev/sda6            1003        3492    20000893+  83  Linux (/)
/dev/sda7            3493       14593    89168751   83  Linux (/home)

Instead the dd restore omitted the swap area. Is this normal? It seems
to me that one cannot replicate a hard disk Linux installation without
an exact replication of the original disk geography. Is this correct?   

I backed up and restored on an unmounted device from the Ubuntu Live
DVD. Could that have caused the problem? I now perform the same sequence
on a mounted device from single-user mode (init 1). Should that make a
difference?

Thanks 

Word Wizard